TIEDE & EDISTYS 1/2000 SUMMARIES

TURO -KIMMO LEHTONEN: On Virtuality. In recent years the concept of "virtuality" has become popular both in social scientific discussions and in journalistic use. While it has been mostly connected to digital technologies, it has also been understood in loose negative terms as something that only "simulates" the "real reality". In order to define it positively this article discusses two uses of the term, one proposed by Gilles Deleuze and the other by Pierre Lévy. They do not define virtuality as lacking reality - for them it is a dimension of the real - but against what is present in actual forms. Whereas Deleuze uses this term in discussing basic questions of philosophy such as the general nature of being and the problems of creation, Lévy connects it more closely to the recent developments in technology and their effect on the current culture.

KAI ERIKSSON: Communication in the Age of the Telephone. The aim of the article is to bring out the lineage through which communication, seen as both the object and means of political projects during the age of telephone's heyday, was increasingly integrated into a sphere of practices wherein the thinking of it was interpreted through an instrumental emphasis, and wherein it was translated into reductionistic, "scientific" schemes. The line is traced from Lester Ward through Frederick Taylor to the technocracy movement and cybernetics, for it was in these discursive frameworks that the foundation for considering communication primarily as a logical structure was laid, and the thinking of communication became reduced into frameworks within which it appeared as a generalized scheme divorced from its fundamental historicity and finitude.

JANNA KANTOLA: Poetry and Postmodernism. The article draws from the features of Postmodernism in the context of poetry, and the on-going Anglo-American discussion on the subject. To begin with, the connection to Surrealism, and Avant-Garde literature in general, is emphasized by taking a brief look at Charles Russell's theory of the Avant-Garde. The article then proceeds to particularize the most prominent tendencies in discussing Postmodern poetry. It is being noticed that certain features, such as fragmentation and playfulness, seem to be passing from the subject-matter to the actual body of criticism as well. Finally, John Ashbery's idea of a new form of criticism, that of a "new Criticism", is introduced. As in much of Postmodern poetry, "all/ is by definition subject matter for the new/ Criticism".

TIEDE & EDISTYS 2/2000 SUMMARIES

YRJÖ HAILA: From Ecology to Politics: Discipline or Solidarity? The catastrophe at Chernobyl in 1986 demonstrated the ambiguity of environmental problems: the"ecology" that was damaged was primarily within the human body and society, not "out there". The ecological crisis is a shock of uncertainty - the realization that while there are lots of potential Chernobyls around, it is impossible to identify them with certainty in advance. The ambiguity of environmental problems connects with Michel Foucault's concepts of "governmentality" and "biopolitics": important aspects of modern environmental policy can be understood through these concepts. The main argument of the paper is as follows: because it is not clear whether environmental problems actually are inside or outside society, every effort to establish comprehensive environmental governance necessarily includes a strong disciplinary edge. Globalisation of environmental thinking strengthens this tendency. As a counterpoint, concrete forms of solidarity should be developed to support the capacity of human individuals and communities to get prepared to unexpected environmental disturbances.

KARI SAASTAMOINEN: Was Hobbes a failed liberal? Hobbes is often presented as a failed liberal who started with extremely individualistic premises but for me reason ended up with absolutist conclusions. The article criticizes this view, maintaining that for Hobbes the central task of political philosophy was not to explain why free individuals establish sovereign political power. Hobbes' theory was an answer to the question what are the rights of a sovereign and the duties of subjects. His atomistic conception of the state and nature aimed at showing the purpose of political institutions, and at explaining how these institutions must be constructed in order to serve their end.

JAKKE HOLVAS: Radical Exchange - Marcel Mauss' "Gift" as an introduction to non-economic reciprocity. The article revaluates Mauss' well known essay "Gift" through Jean Baudrillard's concepts and at the same time against Maurice Godelier's and Jacques Derrida's interpretations of Mauss. The hypothesis of the article is that there is something contractual, which preceeds traditional social contract, and it can be called "radical social contract". Radical social contract is secret and it remains of Bataillean complicity. Activity within radical social contract is always exchange. Exchange is radical because it is not exchange of values but exchange in which values are annuled by the principle of giving in return. "Radical exchange" calls into question irreversibe movements (production, additional value) with the principle of reversibility according to which objects (gifts) and acts (sacrifices, dissipations, destructions) are always challenges. The end of the article discusses anti-christian and non-economic ethics, "radical solidarity". There the most important thing for a human being is the ability to give and to participate in a non-communicative reciprocity. Without that reciprocity there is no joy of living.

TIEDE & EDISTYS 3/2000 SUMMARIES

MIKA OJAKANGAS: The Ethos of Welfare and the "Problem of Passive Population". Juutas Käkriäinen in the light of Pekka Kuusi's Social Policy for the 60's. Why Pekka Kuusi in his Social Policy for the 60's chooses Juutas Käkriäinen - a character of Joel Lehtonen's Putkinotko - to represent the improper citizen of the finnish welfare state? The first and most obvious answer is that Juutas is passive since Kuusi describes Juutas' form of life in a chapter "The Problem of Passive Population". Passivity is an improper trait of character for the citizen of a welfare state because of its economic unproductiveness. The most probable answer to the question why Juutas is excluded from the welfare state arises, however, from the perspective of power - to the extent that power signifies isolation and organisation of potentiality. The purpose of Kuusi's welfare state is to "mobilize the whole population" totally and permanently. It tries to isolate and organize all the potentialities of the population. However, inasmuch as Juutas "is what he is", as he actualises all potentialities in every act, as his essence (life) lies in his existence (form of life), power cannot isolate and organize - "mobilize" - his life. His life is not a form given to a life but rather a life, which is inseparable from its form. Juutas' form-of-life is a life in its fulfilled form and therefore an attempt to mobilize it does not signify welfare but pain. Since potentiality, which is not enacted and does not achieve its end, is - as Aristotle proves - the source of pain.

HEINI HAKOSALO: Variations of Academic Power: Women in the German academic system before the First World War. The paper deals with a major rupture in the history of the European university - women's entry to the academic world - by focusing on the medical faculties of the three German-language universities of Berlin, Vienna and Zurich between, roughly, 1860 and 1814. The "institutional acculturation" (Lenoir 1997, 3) of women in the academic world has been studied mostly from political, judicial and administrative - or else biographic - point of view. Instead, the present paper concentrates on easily overlooked micromechanisms of power. After shortly reviewing the foremost macrolevel developments in the three cities it turns to three forms of exclusion, namely spatial, social and discursive exclusion experienced by the pioneering generations of female medical students and doctors. The paper shows how simple spatial exclusion could and was used to hamper women's studies even after they had officially been granted full rights of studying, how the german student and professional cultures contained features which made it extremely difficult if not impossible for women to fit in, and how medical and scientific discourse provided arguments designed to show that, by the force of nature, women do not and will never be able to be scientifically productive. Since the german university system was firmly research-oriented, this amounted to saying that women can never legitimately possess and practice academic power. This turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy at least in some parts of the German-speaking academic world, since the first german female professor - an assistant professor in anatomy - was nominated only in 1924.

TIEDE & EDISTYS 4/2000 SUMMARIES

TURO-KIMMO LEHTONEN: How Many Are We? The collective on trial in three studies by Bruno Latour. A constant theme in Latour's work is the critique of the traditional sociological concept of 'society'. He replaces it with the notion of 'collectivity' that alludes to associations, translations and mediations between different forces and actants, both humans and non-humans. It is the inclusion of non-humans in the collectivity that makes this concept radical; similarly, for Latour the capability of 'acting' is not limited to human beings. However, he does not seem to be interested in developing these concepts in abstract terms only; rather, for him they are tools for concrete empirical studies of specific cases and trials where the borders of collectivity are questioned, defined and negotiated. Thus, taking seriously the emphasis on empirical studies this article introduces Latour's thought and its relevance for social sciences through discussing three case studies: one on the history of science, another on the nature of innovative technological systems, and a third one on the networks of knowledge that make everyday life possible in a metropolis.

PETRI YLIKOSKI: Bruno Latour and Science Studies. The article evaluates Bruno Latour's actor-network theory from the point of view of science studies. The author compares Latour's ontological views with David Bloor's causalist programme and finds some surprising similarities between them. The article discusses Latour's principle of generalised symmetry and argues that its relevance to empirical research is negligible and that it is incompatible with the question-setting of sociology of knowledge. The conclusion is that Latour's empirical findings can be presented without his philosophical views and that the actor-network theory is more like a vocabulary for presenting results of research than a theory.

TARU PELTOLA JA MARIA ÅKERMAN: The Fight for Profitability : Economic calculations as boundary objects of action. The paper focuses on the role of economic calculations as an active, non-human actor in the dispute over Alavus heating plant in 1993. The calculations acted as an important boundary object both in the creation of competitive co-operation networks and in the creation of common ground for communication between the disputing participants. The calculations were not only passive resources for argumentation: they were performative. They affected the formation of socio-material network by homogenising and centralising heterogenous elements and constituting relations between them. Therefore, the calculations in interaction with other actors actively constituted the actual object of decision making.