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Ari Antikainen & Päivi Harinen, University of Joensuu LIVING AND LEARNING IN A CHANGING EUROPEAN PERIPHERY Abstract

Living and learning in a changing European periphery

In the article, the issue of ”new” identity and the meaning of education and learning for young people and adults in the changing and diversifying Finnish society are examined. The authors refer to Manuel Castells’ and Pekka Himanen’s view of Finland as a peculiar (Nordic) model of information society that forms a unique mixture of technological-economic innovation, welfare state policies and national identity. In the light of their biographical and ethnographic studies on young people’s and adults’ everyday life, education and learning, the authors try to describe the complexity and controversy of identity work on the eve of multicultural information society.

Problem and perspective Finland is located far up in the North. The easternmost corner of Finland and the European Union is the province of North Karelia, where we are living and reseaching. Karelia has a special position in Finnish cultural history. A major part of Finnish folklore, for instance the poems “Kalevala” and “Kanteletar” has been collected in Karelia. Harry Martinson, a great Swedish poet, praises the symbolic beauty of Karelia in “Sång om Karelen” (Song of Karelia), a poem in his space epic “Aniara”. During World War II Finland lost a substantial part of Karelia, receiving 400 000 displaced Karelian immigrants (e.g. Mead 1988). This created a major refugee problem in a country of only 4 million people. The problem was solved by establishing about 100 000 new small farms for the Finnish Karelians. Nowadays, Finland, among other post-industrial societies, has reached a stage that often is called information age. The information-technology related business units are, however, located mainly in very few cities, especially in Helsinki region. So, North Karelia, as the rest of Eastern and Northern Finland, is classified by the EU as an underdeveloped Objective I area where the rate of unemployment is 15-20%, twice that of the country as a whole.

In our article, we examine the everyday life of people living in Finland and in North Karelia in the light of our case studies. The scrutiny proceeds according to results of two research groups, one studying the meaning of education in Finnish life courses and the other concentrating on young people's everyday life (Note 1). We are especially interested in identity work in the middle of the 158. Living and learning.doc social and cultural change, which people are living through. In public discourse, this change is characterized by the terms ‘globalization’ and ‘information society.’ In everyday life this change is manifested through, among other things, tightening economic competition, in which some are winners and others are unemployed losers; through migration and immigration; and in terms of risks and uncertainty. From the outset we agree with the view that ‘globalization’ and ‘information society’ can be used to describe the surface of the transformation. The concept of ‘globalization’, used to refer to the social order, means the collapse of the cold war’s bipolar world and the emergence of a unipolar economic world system, where governments, corporations and individuals compete at coping and winning. This tendency has also often meant a decrease in welfare state structures, which especially in Finland has been hastened by a deep economic repression in the 1990s. The concept of ‘information society’ indicates technological change and intensive use of information in the economy as central features of social transformation. What are the place and meaning of education and learning for young people and adults on the eve and in the waiting room of information society? That is one question we are examining in our ethnographic and biographical studies. We are studying culture and everyday life, but at the same time we want to discuss the nature of the contemporary social change. The article proceeds from a general view of the contemporary Finnish society to a closer sight on people's life courses and everyday realities.

Towards a Finnish model of information society?

Based on theories of postindustrial society or informational society, Manuel Castells (1996, 13-18) argues that an informational mode of development with its distinctive social structure is historically succeeding the mode of industrial development. According to Castells’ view, societies are organized around human processes structured by historically determined relationships of production, power and experience. Human symbolic communication in time and space creates cultures and collective identities. Castells (1996, 15) states: “Symbolic communication between humans, and the relationship between humans and nature, on the basis of production (with its complement, consumption), experience, and power, crystallize over history in specific territories, thus generating cultures and collective codes.”

From the point of view of social organization, informational societies are network societies:

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“Networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture.” (Castells 1996, 469.)

In a network society the power and influence of traditional political institutions are weakened, while media has a central position. Thus the emerging culture could be called as a media culture. As a counter-force to the media culture, and to the entire global informational market logic, a search for local cultural identity rises among people. In this search or identity crisis, people rely on such old identity markers as nationality and religion. Gender, too, is a central marker, as well as social movements like feminism and the ecological movement, business connections mediated by the new network, and new opportunities arising from new forms of mysticism. The global Net and the local Self are the central social forces of the informational society.

Manuel Castells’ theories have been well received in Finland. A remarkable Finnish foundation, SITRA, has appointed Castells, together with a young philosopher Pekka Himanen, to study Finland as an information society (Castells & Himanen 2001; 2002). In their work, Castells and Himanen argue that in Finland a unique mixture of technological-economic innovation, welfare state policies and national identity has developed. They compare this Finnish model with Silicon Valley and Singapore in terms of some technological, economic, welfare and openness indicators. Finland comes out ahead in this comparison, or should we say that the Nokia Mobile Valley does.

Castells’ and Himanen’s study provides evidence that also in the information society a welfare state is possible and even “a decisive contributing factor to the growth of the new economy on a stable basis” (ibid., 181). However, there are weaknesses and challenges emerging from new social structures as well, such as the rise of new inequalities and the contradiction between a strong national identity and integration in a multicultural world (Castells & Himanen 2001, 162-179). Thus, in this article we also scrutinize the issue of identity, to which Castells has paid a lot of attention as well.

National identity as a history of survival

Castells and Himanen (2001) state, that cultural identity and a strong feeling of nationalism are central elements of the Finnish information society. These legitimize the government’s function in

3 158. Living and learning.doc global economic competition if not in the struggle of survival. The authors also analyze through what kind of experiences this identity has been produced. First, they consider the challenge of nature in the form of cold winter. They argue that cold weather has killed more Finns than war. An extreme example are the Hunger Years of 1867-68 when cold weather delayed the sowing of the crop and then an early frost destroyed the harvest. Consequently 120 000 people, 6.5% of the whole population died (ibid. 134-5). Castells and Himanen do not, however, refer to the shortage of food in 1918 and the next decades. In any case, war has also killed a lot of Finns. The civil war in 1918, the winter war and the continuation war against the former Soviet Union in 1939-40 and 1941-44 were very bloody ones.

Castells and Himanen (ibid. 138-148) list other constituents of Finnish identity like a positive attitude to technology, networks of direct and informal communication, and work ethic that is changing from a Protestant ethic towards the hacker ethic. By the hacker ethic Himanen (2001) means a hobby-like, passionate and creative relationship to work by which: ”life may become a source of enjoyment rather than a battle for survival” (ibid., 148). The basic nature of Finnish identity has, however, developed from the experience of a long history of survival and by Castells’ and Himanen’s credo the information society as a project is not just producing a new Finnish identity but it also is the Finnish “coping” identity.

If we try to analyze this production and formation of Finnish identity as a story or narrative, we can not avoid some critical questions. We put them in an exaggerated form: How many and what kind of victims or losers the survival from and coping to this experience will require? Is the Finnish information society more a state strategy than a national citizens’ project? Is it realistic to believe that the promise of life as a source of enjoyment will be realized or are there new threats in the horizon? Can the possible threats be controlled by means of welfare structures, school, education, life-long learning, or identity politics?

Education and biographical learning as identity producers

First we look for answers to our questions from a study where several researchers collected and analyzed people's biographies. What kind of stories are the individual identity production and formation narratives? What are the place and meaning of education in these stories? We have applied the life history method and the data were collected by means of narrative biographical

4 158. Living and learning.doc interviews and thematic interviews. In the initial interviews people told their life stories and the thematic interviews were based on primary analyses of the initial interviews. For the major study we interviewed 44 persons from different social and cultural backgrounds (Antikainen et. al. 1995; 1996). The entire research project consists of many sub studies, which have mapped the theme from different perspectives and examined education as a cultural activity (Antikainen et. al. 1999). The key concepts in this analysis have been ‘life course,’ ‘identity’ and ‘significant learning experiences.’ The interviews were analyzed and the interpretations made on the basis of these three conceptual perspectives. We were only able to systematically interpret two trajectories here: life and education. The researchers reading the data from the life course perspective focused on differences in experiences between age cohorts and found three educational/social generations in Finland (Huotelin & Kauppila 1995; Kauppila 1996; Antikainen & Kauppila 2002). The shared core experiences of each generation, a kind of social identity, had been formed in youth and in the context of the major social transformations of that time.

The oldest generation consists of people born in 1935 or earlier. We call this generation ‘the war generation with scant education’. The life stories tell about hard work and struggle to provide a living for families. These people have faced several situations of distress in their lives, and their experiences during the war, and during the post-war rebuilding, are powerfully present in their life stories. Their prospects for education were minimal, and in the old binary school system people were classified according to their education. We interpret their core experiences, a kind of identity, in the following way: life was a struggle, and education was an ideal. The source of educational idealism was nationalism and patriotism. At that time nationalism was not only a ‘civic religion,’ but also a reaction to underdevelopment in Finland. People of this older generation, and those of the next, middle generation, based their lives on a surprisingly small amount of education or educational experience. What they learned stayed and developed within these (Antikainen & Kauppila 2002).

The next generation, the middle generation, consists of those born between 1936 and 1955. At the time of our study they were thus from 45 to 65 years old. We refer to them as ‘a generation of structural change with growing educational opportunities’. Work is a central issue in their life stories, too, but now work is often connected with education, and it can open up a progressive career path. The historical context of this generation is the swift structural change called the ‘Great Migration’ in 1960-75 that forced many people to move from the countryside to urban areas in

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Southern Finland or Sweden. Finland became part of EFTA (the European Free Trade Area) in 1961. Educational opportunities were opening, but the school system was still a binary or parallel school, even though it had been restructured. The first to take advantage of educational opportunities were the children of upper and middle class families. According to our interpretation, a characteristic of the middle generation’s experience is that work is the central meaning of life, and education functions as a means of professional career advancement (Antikainen & Kauppila 2002).

The youngest generation in our study is large and consists of those born in 1956 and after – now in their mid fifties or younger. We call this group ‘the welfare generation with many educational choices’. Symbolic experiential environments, such as media and entertainment, have a central importance in the life stories of this generation, at least among the youngest of them. According to our interpretation, there are two characteristic features of this generation: hobbies as a meaning for life, and the feeling that one's own identity is a problem . Educational opportunities have increased and become a tangled knot of choices. In comparison with the older generation, changes in the meaning of education are considerable. Whereas education was an ideal for the oldest generation, it is now a commodity, one that is taken for granted. Society has become more rationalized and consumer-oriented, and these changes mean erosion of the cultural enchantment of education. The former ideal is considered boring, but the youngest generation still feels that it is appropriate to gain education, especially because of its instrumental value (Antikainen & Kauppila 2002). The youngest ones also recognize knowledge and information as the taken-for-granted capital of the IT-society.

The first interviews were carried out in 1992-93, when the experiences and impacts of the deep economic recession of the early 1990s were not yet defined. Thus the whole group of under 46-year- olds was placed in the same generation cohort in our analysis of core experiences. Since those times the understanding of the importance of being highly skilled has strengthened. Nowadays the opportunities of employment follow one’s educational level. Hypothetically, we can describe the emerging meaning of education with the phrase education as a compulsion to become highly skilled . This comes close to ‘the ambitious generation’, a typification used in an American study (Schneider & Stevenson 1999). Education is, again, becoming a powerful social selector. Hypothetically, the youngest representatives of this generation could consist of four generational groups or fractions: - Young people who are/are ambitious to become skilled - Young people who are using education for making a social or personal dream come true (Houtsonen 1996)

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- Young people for whom school is a “haven” or a hiding place and prevents becoming labeled as unemployed and losers (Käyhkö & Kurkko 1997; Antikainen et al. 1999, 222) - Young people who by the common discourse are in the process of social exclusion. In terms of generation and common experiences, an alternative future is thus also possible: instead of a social generation the youngest ones may form just a cohort and different social movements within the cohort.

As researchers, we still were surprised to find that there are many common, shared experiences within each cohort. Our analysis was based on Mannheim’s (1952) concept of ‘generational location,’ which we call ‘experiential generation’ (cf. Virtanen 1999). We did not study generations as actual or ‘mobilized generations’ as they are also called, nor did we systematically examine generation units or fractions. Nevertheless, we also made observations concerning differences and distinctive groups within each generation. Differences based on social class were clear. For people from lower classes life was more often a struggle than for those from upper classes. Social class or one’s parents’ educational status often determined orientation towards “theoretical“ or “practical“ studies. In our observations we found many expected differences in terms of gender as well. Some female life stories were full of caring, and some male life stories approached official CVs. When studying young students from working class backgrounds, Käyhkö and Tuupanen (1997) concluded that the boys’ educational orientation was more instrumental than the girls’ one. We also made some observations regarding differences in terms of ethnic group . The Finnish school system does not properly interact with e.g. Romany culture. Up until the seventies Sami people as well have had very bitter school experiences, but Sami activists in our sample group at least have used their success in the Finnish education system as a resource in their struggle for their own rights. Our field experiences also prove that education for refugees and immigrants has not been sufficiently developed and institutionalized.

Houtsonen's (1996) study clarifies the ways in which people use their education in their life course for constructing identity. According to Houtsonen, the educational choices of most interviewees happened according to the frame of reference they had internalized in the cultural environment and experiences they have had. Exceptions to this cultural manuscript were easiest to note in the middle generations. An inner challenge, such as a desire to have a more meaningful job, or an external necessity, for example being left a widow(er) or getting ill, sometimes created a new awareness and made the individual think things over. As a result, people changed their plans for life and education.

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In situations like this, people become more aware of the cultural resources that are available to them, such as information, skills, images, or equipment that they can use for solving problems or developing different ways of acting. Learning processes occur when people meet a problematic situation in life, which they try to solve with new resources, and these resources become a part of identity.

Antikainen (1996; 1998) described this process as a significant learning experience (cf. Merriam & Clark 1991). In an individual learning biography these experiences form the transitions of the life- story: Significant learning experiences are those which appeared to guide the interviewee’s life course or changed or strengthened his or her identity. Subjectivization or even empowerment was associated with many significant learning experiences. For young people, hobbies were often places for this subjectivization. This remark is analogical to Himanen’s (2001) hacker ethic. In addition, in analyzing narratives Antikainen found some special socio-structural contexts in which education seemed to have an empowering impact. They varied widely as one can see from the following list: - Surviving widowhood for female widows - Strengthening Sami (Lappish) ethnic identity for Sami activists - Migration from the countryside to cities for men with health problems - Realization of social and personal dreams for representatives of various social movements (Antikainen 1996, 274-291).

In the frame of cultural and personal identity we are ready to interpret most of the significant learning experiences as stories of survival and coping (see Antikainen 1996, 1998). They depict the knowledge and skills that have been used to cope in life. This reminds us about Matti Kortteinen’s interpretation (1992), according to which there are three phases in the Finnish cultural coping story: 1) “life is tough,” 2) “one tries to cope,” and 3) “one has coped and is proud of it.”

In each significant learning experience, personal and social relations that support learning were easy to find. Learning can be studied in terms of personal relations even in a technological society. Applying the language of symbolic interactionism we called these relations significant others of learning . There can be local and distant significant others of learning. The local ones are concrete human beings, the distant ones are often symbolic images. The relations between the learner and local significant others are communities (Gemeinschaft ) rather than associations (Gesellschaft ). Of

8 158. Living and learning.doc course, each organization has both sides, but in these cases of significant learning experience association or formal organization gives way to a sense of community.

Based on these findings, it is logical to ask how the functional resources of such communities – e.g. family, school, work place and association – have changed in recent decades. The answer is clear: at least since 1990s on there has been a trend of changes in welfare structures and decreasing resources. As communities have a vital role also in the information society, this trend means differences in learning opportunities and a weakening of these opportunities for deprived groups. It should be noticed, however, that the object of this remark here are traditional institutions and identities that Castells (1997) refers to as “legitimizing.” But also in studies of such successful IT- development and training cases like the creation of Linux-system or the Upper Karelia Learning Project (a local project among “ordinary people” to increase knowledge and opportunities for participation in information society ), it has been demonstrated, that the hero has not been only an individual person or persons but a community-like group of peer activists (Himanen 2001; Castells & Himanen 2001, 125-127; Oksa & Turunen 2000).

We are able to draw four basic conclusions regarding our analysis of the meaning of education and learning. - First of all, it appears that, as on the level of national identity, there also is on the level of individual identity a narrative of survival and coping. On both levels, the narrative is not only about heroes, but also about victims and losers; the latter ones, however, not being able or willing to tell their stories. - Secondly, education is a strong producer of identity. Schools, however, are not self-sufficient in this production; other environments should take part in the process. - Thirdly, from generation to generation the meaning of education has changed. Education has become increasingly instrumental without values of its own. - Fourthly, individuals can change the scripts of their lives still at an adult age and to use education and learning for this purpose. Other people’s and the communities’ support is, however, needed to realize this change. In general we can conclude that people use education in different ways depending on socio- historical context and life situation. (Antikainen et al. 1999, 222.)

Confrontations in the everyday lives of young people

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At this juncture we turn our look on the youngest people of our studies, and to those who might be in the process of exclusion, in terms of globalization, multiculturalism, and information society. Swastikas, “88”-symbols, White Power slogans, and Heil Hitler signs in the walls of public buildings in Joensuu bring out one side of the complicated and contradictory international reality and identity struggle which is happening among the young people of Eastern Finland. The task of this chapter is to clarify how identities are put into work in new circumstances, taken as means to "make sense" of situations that are felt confusing.

The cases we investigate here rise from our field experiences and analyses of the everyday lives of both Finnish and immigrant young people and their families living in Eastern Finland. In the early 1990s Joensuu rose to dubious national fame in Finland as the capital city of racism and ethnic hatred. This reputation came primarily from the fact that there was an active and conspicuous gang of skinheads roaming about in the city, openly racist and violent, and causing many problems in the lives of local immigrants. Joensuu’s racism was defined as being primarily a youth problem, for which an active solution was sought through, e.g., making the phenomenon the subject of sociological and pedagogical studies. In our discussion there also is a theoretical justification for focusing the investigation on young people: especially in the wake of Mannheim’s (1952) thought, and according to the general paradigm of youth research, young people are often understood as the generation which has an unbiased, tradition free and ‘fresh contact’ with society and its changes. This ‘fresh contact’ discourse is the starting point when young people are taken on as cultural interpreters in circumstances where structural changes also call for the re-evaluation of culture and its most powerful representations (Ziehe 1991). In the Castellsian world of networks and low borders there seems to be a need for new interpretations.

In the social and cultural mosaic born out of the process of globalization new demands for survival and socialization are born, which emphasize, among other things, multiculturalism and a capacity for geographical mobility. These changes are also believed to mean the breakdown and fading away of structures which create national identity. In concrete terms they can in the new social reality in Eastern Finland be seen, for example, in the exodus of the young and well- educated from the region, and in the increasing numbers of refugees and immigrants from different areas of the world coming in. The particular local immigrant group in Joensuu, however, is composed of so-called Ingerian returnees. One significant pattern of migration in terms of the process of globalization has

10 158. Living and learning.doc indeed brought to Eastern Finland a rather conspicuous Russian-speaking minority, which has settled in as part of the local community, making e.g. Vietnamese and Somalis who came earlier partly “invisible”.

The sheer quantity of immigrants from Russia and close connections among them have gradually come to be seen as a threat by the local folk. This is further toned by emotionally charged memories in connection with the local war-coloured history. There is one additional feature of Russian immigration that astounds local people: they actively maintain social connections with their places of origin and frequently go back and forth between these places and their new homes – something which "normal" refugees at least do not do. This new situation has activated processes in which identity has started to become utilized, in Touraine's (1994; see Castells 1996, 23) words, as the defense of the subject (…) against the logic of apparatuses and markets (…). Castells identifies these kind of identity projections as the opposition to the culturally destructive forces of global networking. A portion of the young people seem to have taken this opposition to change as their “mission in life” (Perho 2000).

Our experience and analysis show that, as Mannheim has put it, young people in the midst of change can indeed be identified as cultural interpreters. Still, the message that they relay can go against the ideals and goals stressed by various multiculturalism programs (e.g. by curricula of multicultural classes). Change, difference and the culturally “other” can also receive a backlash expressed, for example, in the forms and operations of various movements and opposition identities. This appears to happen especially in situations in which it is a matter of sharing milieus and spaces that are considered to be one’s own with some “unknown” (Bauman 1996; see Keskisalo & Perho 2001). Internationalization and multiculturalism are in principle easy to accept when the “other” is sufficiently far away so as not to disturb our everyday routines and ontological safety (concept from Giddens 1995; see Ruuska 1999). In situations where the “other” comes closer, we need to negotiate our everyday lives afresh, during which process our natural attitude towards the world (Schutz 1978) becomes visible and subject to re-evaluation. Our case studies have shown the difficulty of rearranging the everyday order of things as well as the fact that Finnish young people want to be intensively included in determining the conditions under which the presence of immigrants can, in their opinion, be accepted. One central condition proposed for immigrants is to be as Finnish as possible (Keskisalo 2000), but this goal has not been made easy for them to reach:

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If the Vietnamese have children here then they still don’t seem Finnish; there’ve got to be some roots, for many generations. (Anu, 17-year-old Finnish girl, in Harinen 2000, 68)

According to our observations, young people remain relatively alone in their negotiations and everyday confrontations with the “other.” Their parents’ nostalgic 1960s ethos of internationalism was a mentality based on volunteerism and solidarity of rather different sort than the globalization of the third millennium, which is now the compelling force to be met with. Such meetings, however, are by their nature selective, nor is everyone “forced to meet”: national and local settlement and acculturation policies have led to a situation where everyday negotiations with immigrants have become a question for certain neighborhoods or suburbs – an issue mainly for certain families, schools and young people.

Families’ traditional role as an institution for child raising seems to be in a state in which the milieus of the different generations continue to further separate them from each other, turning the gap between generations into something it has never been before (Ziehe 1991). Finnish young people’s parents are often getting further removed from the everyday realities in which their children live, thus becoming less able to help them to deal with new situations and co-existence with the “other”. Within immigrant families, in turn, it can happen that the younger family members – with their ‘fresh contact’ – end up serving as negotiators between their parents and the host culture, significantly changing family value structures and hierarchies, and potentially leading to problems of cultural fragmentation among minority groups. This appears to be happening already among Vietnamese and Somali immigrants at least (e.g., Laapio 1994; Marjeta 2001).

In the microcosmos of confrontations in the everyday lives of the young people school has become a rather central arena: legislation requires every young person living in Finland to fulfil their learning requirement in one way or another. Multiculturalism and internationalization can be seen as some of the biggest challenges for the school, both in Civic Education projects and more generally on the level of curriculum development and day to day practices. The pedagogical emptiness of schools pointed out by Ziehe (1991) needs to be filled with new, ever more challenging content. In the ideal situation “genuine” internationalization and multiculturalism is defined in the curriculum guides as harmonious co-existence, but in the reality determined by the limits of everyday life this ideal often is still far away, and often the school seems to become a battleground of different worlds:

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This school is divided into Finnish and Russian sides. Over by the Coke machine is where the Russians hang out, and then we are over on the other side (…) in practice you can see a definite border. (Lauri, 15-year-old boy, in Keskisalo & Perho 2001, 90) One of the micro-pillars of the new system presented in the debate over globalization is regionalism (referring to collective identities), together with localism (referring to experiences that shape day to day routines), as an impression base for territory and identity smaller than the nation-state. Nationally, Eastern Finland’s location is both geographically and historically significant: the most central "marks" of Finnish nationhood, the Russian border as well as the district of Karelia which is now behind it, are continuously present, shaping and augmenting the regional identity. Our analysis shows that the Eastern Finnish regional identity is defined in a framework of larger Finnish national identity. “National” has, over the course of history, drawn its strength from “nationalism,” intolerance, racism, ethnocentric categories and prejudices – oppositions and differences (Hall 1999, 39). National identity is a central element in the psychology of belonging and separation, and as such a useful part of ethnocentric projects and political performances which take shape in people’s day to day lives as well. The nationality based mentality which has been constructed by the young people we have studied can be considered as a project identity looking into the future, although its legitimizing elements are drawn from the past, history and traditional emotional connections (Castells 1997, 7, 64; Giddens 1995; c.f., Castells & Himanen 2001). An ethos tied to history, biology, geography, collective memory, institutions and joint action can in Castellsian terms easily be interpreted as a defensive reaction against disorder. In our data, the meaning of borders is defined as most apparent in making sense to the world order: There’s this huge globe and then there’s this tiny little bit that’s us – that’s our place, it’s just right (…) if the world wouldn’t have any borders, nothing would make any difference and chaos would come. (Kaisu, 17-year-old Finnish girl, in Harinen 2000, 66)

The historically disputed border is both a physical and symbolic space the task of which has been to point out a distinction between two different worlds, to show difference. Increased ease in crossing this border has not, however, always meant the cessation of symbolic and mental differentiation. In recent years a relatively large number of immigrants have crossed the border, but the movement has only been in one direction. Many newcomers have received a negative reception because they have not met the criteria for welcome immigrants, those who are either poor, sick, destitute children

13 158. Living and learning.doc crying out for help, or at the other extreme skilled engineers of use to the Nokia corporation. Bhabha’s (1994; also Jameson 1991) ‘third space’ concept is well realized in the lives of these immigrants, whose everyday experiences are regulated by two different places and cultures, in which social connections with the previous make back and forth movement across the border possible and permissible. The local reaction, however, has often been indignant moralizing, constructing threatening images of all the dangers that those crossing the borders can carry with them. In the new social order, also seen as threatening, this danger can catch and spread (see Douglas 1966): If I say like “bring all the foreigners here” then of course it could increase something like HIV and the sort of virus that spreads easily… so like, of course everything has its risks, good and bad sides. (Ilona, 20-year-old Finnish girl, in Harinen 2000, 67)

The young people we have studied – as well as we adults studying them – live in a new situation, which challenges them to take a stand one way or the other. Relating to internationalization, multiculturalism and the “other” is starting to be part of self and lifestyle, as any other message about one’s self presented to one’s environment (Lähteenmaa 2001). Young people’s day to day contacts with the “other” are full of continuous position taking and identity performances, which often come out as opposition, especially in the lives of young people living in the border regions (Jukarainen 2000). Seen from the perspective of everyday experience, social psychology’s classic contact hypothesis thus appears to become more complicated and subject to problematization. Our observations show that young people are also quite adept in the cross-draught of taking stands and systems of separation as well as in re-directing the international language of intolerance and other traditional symbols.

The effects of global networking processes pointed out by Castells appear to be manifesting themselves through the questioning and breaking down traditional values and structures on the local level. Seen from the perspective of day to day life, these processes and breakdowns still do not appear to be simplistic. The new situation in the everyday lives of the young people we have studied has brought confusion and challenged some of them to take an active stand and have a strong ethos of national identity. With the support of Castells’ (1997, 8) categories of identity, this ethos could be taken as a legitimizing identity in a setting based on traditional authority apparatuses and institutions, but resistance identity also works as an interpretive frame of reference here, where

14 158. Living and learning.doc change and “newness” (Bhabha 1994) are called into question. Within these identity projections social spheres have been born, in which some young people enjoy the situation and the possibilities for various performances and struggles that it creates. Some watch quietly from the sidelines, supporting the struggle with their silence. A small portion of young people step into the third space (Jameson 1991; Bhabha 1994), but it still appears to require special courage: One fellow said, while we’re down at the shopping center, “what’s this filthy shit that you’re bringing around here”…I have to do a lot of thinking about what Ville and I have going, like where we can be seen… (Taru, a Finnish girl who is dating an immigrant boy, Anne-Mari Keskisalo's data, not published)

As a brief summary of our analysis, we can say that the new international and multicultural everyday reality in Eastern Finland is a lively totality, reflected in young people’s world and contacts as well. Elements of identity pulsating deep down within cultures are becoming part of everyday life and being activated in everyday arenas: youth centers, shops, schools and homes. Because these situations appear as problems in day to day life we have set out to collect solutions as well from day to day life, organizing encounters of the grass-root level. Programmatic projects in formal education or school campaigns for manifesting new identities have at least this far proved to be useless: There’s been a war going on for some time now; World War Three. (Sami and Lauri, 15-year-old Finnish boys, in Keskisalo & Perho 2001, 92)

Future prospects: possible project identities

The Finnish information society model by Castells and Himanen is based excessively on technology; therefore other sides of society are idealized by them. We have tried to demonstrate that the question of “new” Finnish identity is more complex and controversial. In our biographical studies, consequences of the dominance of market logic, individualization and increasing inequality were noticeable. Young people experience and interpret them in the most immediate way. These tendencies also form a background for ethnic prejudices and racism.

As referred before, Castells (1997, 8) makes a distinction between different origins and forms of identity : legitimizing identity , resistance identity and project identity . The first, legitimizing identities, are based on dominant institutions. In education and educational research, legitimizing

15 158. Living and learning.doc identities are often the only category of identity dealt with. The second, resistance identities, are those forms of identities emerging from resistance against the logic of domination. Many social movements are sources of these identities. The third, project identities, are redefinitions of social actors that change their positions in society and simultaneously transform social structures.

Thus, the key question is as follows: What sources for educational project identities are available in contemporary Finnish society? If Castells and Himanen had applied this concept, they would argue for the information society project. But are there corresponding sources in the other fields of social life? At least such three projects are possible and also desirable:

- One is the project of lifelong learning and the identity of a person who cope with life by learning. So, we do not mean the present project of lifelong learning which aims to oil the engines of economic system, but the kind of lifelong learning that pays attention to the everyday needs of various groups, especially those with scant economic and cultural resources. The realization of this lifelong learning would be based on a mixture of formal education and informal learning.

- Second project is the return and reform of Nordic welfare state education policy and the rejection of neoliberalism and racism. According to very many studies, the welfare state and welfare state education policy are strongly supported by the majority of the population in Finland. Thus the identity of welfare state citizen is still there. We can imagine that new social movements could reform the organization of welfare state.

- Finally, the projects based on regional identities , at least as resistance identities, are possible and realistic in Finland – in a sparsely populated and polarized country where we still have a living university and school network and a regional media network (cf. Dahllöf et al. 1998). - At this moment, it is not reasonable to argue for any single defined identity for young people, but they need space and support to construct their identities and relations to “others” in everyday life.

Notes and acknowledgements:

The members of the first group (Searching for the meaning of education ) were Ari Antikainen, Jarmo Houtsonen, Juha Kauppila, Hannu Huotelin, Mari Käyhkö and Päivi Tuupanen. The other group (Skinheads of Joensuu – a product of community? ) was formed by Päivi Harinen, Vesa Puuronen, Tarja Hildén, Anne-Mari Keskisalo and Sini Perho.

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This article is based on the paper delivered at the Nordic Educational Research Association's 30th Congress in Tallinn, Estonia, March 2002. The works of our research projects' were funded by the Academy of Finland and the University of Joensuu. A version of this article will be published in the journal Lifelong Learning in Europe (the KVS Foundation, Helsinki).

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Bionotes:

Ari Antikainen is Professor of Sociology of Education in the Department of Sociology, University of Joensuu, POB 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland. He has published two books in English ’The Regional University’ (Joensuu: Joensuu University Press, 1980) and (with Jarmo Houtsonen, Hannu Huotelin and Juha Kauppila) ’Living in a Learning Society: Life-Histories, Identities and Education’ (London: Falmer Press, 1996) and seven books in Finnish. He has co-edited with Carlos Torres ’International Handbook on the Sociology of Education: An International Assessment of New Reseach and Theory’ (Rowman & Littlefield, in print).

Päivi Harinen is Assistant Professor of Counselling in the Department of Education, University of Joensuu, POB 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland. As a member of the Finnish Youth Research Society, she has published one book and several articles about young people as members of society and culture. The current subjects of her research are young dual citizens living in Finland.

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Ari Antikainen Department of Sociology University of Joensuu POB 111 80101 Joensuu Finland

Email: [email protected]

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