The Data Subject's Right of Access and to be Informed in Finland: An Experimental Study

The EC Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC emphasises the roleof transparency in fair and lawful processing of personal data.This study describes the results from sending forty requestsfor access to data held and information on processing to controllersof personal data in Finland. The results show that there arestill difficulties in gaining access, in verifying the correctnessof information provided and in the procedures controllers employto provide information. These factors are discussed in lightof Finnish and EC regulation, as well as information systems.Proposals are put forward as to how the difficulties might beaddressed.     

Political mobilisation and place‐specificity: Radical nationalist street campaigning in the Spanish Basque country

The political context of Spanish Basque nationalism has changed dramatically during the last decades. As a consequence, moderate and radical nationalist groups have turned bitterly against one another. The internal power struggle is fought most visibly in the street, which is traditionally the central place of Basque political mobilisation. Particularly the radical nationalists use graffiti and mass demonstrations to question the legitimacy of the existing power structures. This paper examines the radical nationalist methods of mobilisation in the changing overall context of Basque politics. It is argued that the campaigns ought to be discussed as both instruments and expressions of local discontent, relevant at several geographical scales. The aim is to demonstrate the significance of local political activity for politics at regional, national and continental levels. Exactly this connection makes local public resistance an important subject of geographical study.