The spread of mobile communication among Finnish teenagers has been markedly rapid during the latter half of the 1990s. Young people have created and developed a communication culture that incorporates many special features, such as a rise in the use of text-based communication channels. Teenagers’ intersecting and selective use of communication channels has generated multimedial communication. From the theoretical standpoint provided by symbolic interactionism, we can ask whether communication through new media technologies generates new forms of social interaction. If this is the case, how could we describe and analyse these new forms of interaction? The media landscapes created by teenagers serve to articulate their personal space, as well as enabling their presentation of self and defining their relationships to others. This article is based on thematic interview material, and its purpose is to analyse the meanings and use contexts of mobile communication and other multimedial communication culture among Finnish youth.

The phenomenon of tattooing became part of mainstream culture in the 1990s. The article analyses portraits that were published in Tattoo magazine, where the meanings of tattoos varied from self-adornment to a narrative structuring of life history and identity protection. Particular focus is put on how tattoos are used to plot life stories. The tattooed body represents a map that enables narration. Dramatic life changes are embodied in tattoos that help subjects to ease their problems. However, since problems are engraved into skin and flesh they are visible and also seen by other people. Subjectivities become visible. The analysis given in the article offers a view upon a paradox of subjectivity in late modern society. The human body is, at the same time, both a subject actively seeking meaning and a mere object to be judged.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to study the historical emergence of psychological management in Finnish working life from the viewpoint of recruitment process by examining the changing qualities of the ideal manager in Finland in the post-Second World War era. Design/methodology/approach -The study is conducted through an analysis of 1,305 manager position job advertisements in the major Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat between 1949 and 2009. Findings -The average number of references to personal skills and traits in manager position job advertisements grew from 0.7 to 3.8 between 1949 and 2009, and by the end of the 1990s exceeded the average number of references to technical and cognitive skills. During the same period, intrinsic job benefits largely replaced extrinsic benefits in job advertisements. The results suggest that the anthropocentric management of personalities and subjectivities was gradually introduced to Finnish organizations over a period of several decades. The complex historical process, deeply interlinked with organizational and societal developments, resulted in a highly multi-dimensional ideal manager of 2009. Originality/value -The study offers original knowledge regarding the emergence of psychological management, and sharpens the picture of changing management ideals in a national context.