World Futures Studies Federation in 1993-1997

This paper provides an overview of the WFSF during its ‘Finnish’ period of 1993-1997. During this time the WFSF organized and co-organized many conferences, symposiums, courses, summer schools, etc. In 1993, the XIII World Conference of WFSF was held in Turku, Finland; in 1995 the XIV World Conference was in Nairobi, Kenya; and in 1997, the XV World Conference was in Brisbane, Australia. These and many other events are outlined. Much is left unwritten, however, because there were and are many other activities inspired by the WFSF and its members. The information collected here is mainly derived from the WFSF Biannual Report 1995-1997, World Conference Selections and WFSF Newsletters and Bulletins.     

Conversational use of genres in managerial meetings

This article addresses the question of how the concept of genre, defined as a linguistically realized activity type, can be applied to the study of organizational discourse. In particular, the authors show how and for what practical purposes managers invoke genres in meetings. The data of the study consist of video-recorded company-internal meetings and the methodology is based on ethnomethodological conversation analysis. In the empirical analysis the authors show how genres are used as resources for joint understanding and for conducting a particular conversational action in a meeting, namely proposing a solution to a problem. The study highlights the importance of genre knowledge in managerial meetings and the practical nature of this knowledge.     

Predicting autonomous and controlled motivation to transfer training

In spite of a broad consensus on the importance of motivation for the transfer of learning from training to the job in work organizations, studies investigating motivation to transfer are limited. This study combines the self‐determination theory, the expectancy theory and the theory of planned behaviour to provide a theoretical framework for investigating attitudes towards training content, relatedness and instructional satisfaction as predictors of two dimensions of transfer motivation: autonomous motivation to transfer and controlled motivation to transfer. A total of 444 subjects, trained in 23 occupational health and safety training courses, completed multi‐item questionnaires immediately following training. Structural equation modelling procedures indicate that controlled motivation to transfer was affected by attitudes towards training content and that autonomous motivation to transfer was affected by attitudes, relatedness and instructional satisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications for training effectiveness associated with the interplay of motivation and transfer in professional training.     

Over-Indebtedness in the Finnish Consumer Society

The incurring of debts continues to be a major problem in European economies despite the legislative and other preventive policies introduced over the past 10 years. This article discusses the problem of over-indebtedness in the Finnish consumer society. The article focuses on identifying the environmental and household factors promoting indebtedness and reviews the measurements of over-indebtedness. At the end of the article, a few policy instruments to tackle, or even prevent, over-indebtedness are provided. As debt problems are diverse and complex, the focus is to address the debt problem itself, identify its causes and search for tools for solving it. In addition, constructive talk about the indications of the problem and preventive mechanisms is also of essence.     

The welfare consequences of strategic behaviour under approval and plurality voting

This paper studies the welfare consequences of strategic behaviour under approval and plurality voting by comparing the utilitarian efficiencies obtained in simulated voting under two behavioural assumptions: expected utility-maximising behaviour and sincere behaviour. Under approval voting utilitarian efficiency is relatively high irrespective of the behavioural assumption, and under the plurality rule strategic voting significantly increases utilitarian efficiency.     

Model selection in macroeconomics: DSGE and ad hocness

ABSTRACT

We investigate the applicability of Rodrik’s accounts of model selection and horizontal progress to macroeconomic DSGE modelling in both academic and policy-oriented modelling contexts. We argue that the key step of identifying critical assumptions is complicated by the interconnectedness of the common structural core of DSGE models and by the ad hoc modifications introduced to model various rigidities and other market imperfections. We then outline alternative ways in which macroeconomic modelling could become more horizontally progressive.     

Debt Judgments as a Reflection of Consumption-Related Debt Problems

In connection with the strengthening and enlargement of financial markets, i.e., financialization, financial services and products play a major role in the everyday lives of consumers. One drawback of this trend is the increase in the number of debt problems. The data used in this article consist of Finnish district-court judgments related to debt that in most cases was consumption-related, and register-based data on debtors. We first compare debtors to the entire population of Finland by age, gender, marital status, and education, and also in different age groups. The focus then turns to the four most common types of debt in the judgments (based on consumer credit, operator services, distance selling, and credit card debts), and how age, gender, marital status, and education related to these debt types. According to the results, consumers under 30 years of age, in particular, men, those with a basic level of education, and the divorced were over-represented in the data, compared to the overall Finnish population. Young single adults were particularly likely to have accrued smaller amounts of debt related to instant loans and operator services, whereas more extensive consumer credit as well as credit card debt tended to be a problem among retirees. Credit card debt, as well as debts to lending firms, were more common among those with tertiary education than among those with a basic education. Overall, the adverse effects of financialization focused especially on young people with a low level of education. The results also indicate that legislation could partly reduce the negative effects of financialization.

     

Contextual analyses with QCA-methods

Contextual analyses are essential in comparative research, as they investigate the importance of contextual conditions for causal relationships. During the last decades, an increasing number of comparative studies have also focused on how contextual conditions affect causal relationships. At the same time, new comparative methods have been developed based on set-theoretical logics. Two of the most prominent methods are csQCA and fsQCA, which are used in comparative studies with increasing frequency. However, the conventional design for contextual analysis is still based on quantitative methods and the use of interaction-factors. This article discusses why the use of interaction-factors is not suitable together with QCA-methods. Instead of the conventional design, the article presents an alternative design for contextual analyses with QCA-methods grounded on subgroup-design. Based on one recently-developed methodology comparative multilevel analysis (CMA), some guidelines for performing contextual analyses with two set-theoretical methods (csQCA and fsQCA) are presented. As illustrated with examples, the combination of CMA and QCA provides opportunities to use QCA for contextual analysis.