University of Lapland

About: University of Lapland is a education organization based out in Rovaniemi, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Arctic & Indigenous. The organization has 665 authors who have published 1870 publications receiving 39129 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Rovaniemi & Lapin yliopisto.

Demand for downhill skiing in subarctic climates

Abstract: This paper investigates the determinants of ski lift revenues between 1998/1999 and 2014/2015 in 20 ski areas in Finland by differentiating among winter climate conditions. Results based on dynamic panel data estimations reveal that revenues depend positively on real GDP, snow depth, and an early Easter, and negatively on relative ski lift ticket prices. The magnitude of the link between ski lift revenues and snow depth is large, but ski areas in northern Finland are less sensitive to variations in natural snow depth than those in southern or central Finland. Winter seasons with low snowfall (i.e. between 30% and 75% below average) lead to a reduction of 23% in ski lift revenues in southern Finland, of 8% in central Finland, and of 5% in northern Finland. A high amount of natural snowfall early in the winter also has a positive impact on revenues for the overall season. Despite strong investments in snowmaking facilities, even ski areas at the highest northern latitudes are not insensitive to vari...

Indigenous peoples as international political actors: a summary

Abstract: The article discusses the results of a three year research project studying international indigenous political activism using case studies from the Arctic. Drawing on two different disciplinary starting points, international relations and international law, the project addressed two interrelated questions. The first of these was how relations between states, international organisations and indigenous peoples have been and are currently constructed as legal and political practices; the second was how indigenous peoples construct their political agency through different strategies to further their political interests. These questions are addressed from the point of view of power relations. The power to act is the basic form of political agency. However, this power may take different forms of political action, for example, self-identification, participation, influence, and representation. The main conclusions of the article are: 1) indigenous political agency is based on multiple forms of power; 2) practices of power that enable and constrain indigenous political agency change over time; 3) power circulates and produces multiple sites of encounters for states, international organisations and indigenous people; 4) indigenous political agency is a question of acting; and 5) there are new challenges ahead for indigenous peoples in claiming a political voice, in particular in global climate politics.

The softening of adventure tourism

Abstract: As a consequence of diversification with regard to tourists and their perceptions on adventure tourism, there has been a supposed softening of Arctic adventure tourism. To determine if any such cha...

Experts or good educators – or both? The development of early childhood educators’ expertise in Finland

Abstract: Well-educated staff consists of multidimensional experts, and this staff is one of the strengths of the Finnish day-care system. The aim of this article is to clarify the development of the expertise of those early childhood educators who have qualified as kindergarten teachers. The data consisted of the early educators’ stories (n = 80) of their growth towards expertise. The analysis was carried out as content analysis. As the results, four key factors in the process of growth towards expertise were created. According to the informants, personal life history, education, work experience and personal attitudes towards work had been the most influential factors in the process of growth towards their expertise. The working environment both facilitated and hindered the growth of the expert. It is possible to foster educators’ professional growth with an individual development plan.

The Ability to Love – a Virtue-Based Approach

Abstract: Abraham Maslow (1954) was amazed of the scarcity of research on love. According to Maslow (1954, p. 235), it was surprising how little empiric sciences had to offer to the theme. Especially weird in his opinion was the silence of psychologists because studying love should have been their special responsibility. Maslow thought that the situation possibly originated in academic researchers’ besetting sin: they would rather do what is easy than what is necessary. Research on love and emotions has been taken with suspicious and even the facts that people behave in relation to other people and that people live in the net of human relationships from birth to death have not furthered the research (Berscheid, 2006).