Doctoral Dissertation - Gone with the Wind? Immigrant Women and Transnational Everyday Life in Finland

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

Gone with the Wind?

Immigrant Women and Transnational Everyday Life in Finland

Hille Janhonen-Abruquah (MEd.)

Venue: 26.3.2010 at 12 o’clock, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, Department of Teacher Education at Siltavuorenpenger 10, Auditorium 1. Opponent: Professor Helena Shanahan, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Custos: Professori Kaija Turkki, Helsingin yliopisto.

The doctoral dissertation focuses on the everyday life of transnational families through the eyes of immigrant women. Members of transnational families live in different nation states but act and communicate across national borders on a near-daily basis.The women recoded their everyday life with the help of photograph diaries. Everyday life activities were analysed by describing social, modal and spatial dimensions. Attention was also paid to the accommodative nature of activities; how women maintained traditions and adapted to Finnish life or re-created new activity patterns. The method of analysis that evolved in this study together with the research findings presents everyday life in a more structured way. Everyday life is thus more approachable for research purposes as well as for the use of various interventions targeting to improve the everyday lives of immigrants. The doctorate belongs to the field of home economics science.

The doctorate will be published in series ‘Home Economics and Craft Studies Research Reports 24’ (ISBN 978-952-10-6135-6) and also in E-Thesis http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/ (ISBN 978-952-10-6136-3).

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