Research activities, fall 2019
(a) Completing some of the last analysis of European newspaper data (1960-2010); (b) analyzing the new survey data on cultural practices in Finland (collected in 2018) as well as the new qualitative follow-up interviews with selected survey respondents (collected in 2019); (c) analyzing various other data sets on cultural stratification dynamics.
Teaching in 2019-2020
Our MA thesis seminar, on the topics broadly related to DYNAMIC’s interests, continues in fall term 2019, run by Semi, Riie and Taru (the first meeting will be after the general orientation period/idea paper stage, compulsory to all new MA students in the social science program, in/around mid-October 2019).
A lecture course “Cultural Stratification” (being a part of the teaching of the MA social science program at the Tampere University) to be held by Semi and Taru on fall term 2019 (starting on 23 October 2019).
A lecture course “Social Change” (being a part of the teaching of the BA and MA social science programs at the Tampere University) to be held by Semi on spring term 2020 (starting in January 2020).
A multi-method course “Questions of Sociological Research: A Researcher’s Perspective” (being a part of the teaching of the MA social science program at the Tampere University) to be held by Semi and Jarmo on spring term 2020 (starting in January 2020).
Riie wil supervise a BA thesis seminar on spring term 2020.
News
Semi is a participant (and will be the team leader of the Finnish research group) in a research consortium “European Inventory of Societal Values of Culture as a Basis for Inclusive Cultural Policies in the Globalizing World” (INVENT), which turned out to be successful in EU’s Horizon 2020 call. The three-year project includes research teams from nine European countries and is about to start in February 2020. More information to come.
Past activities
Research mobility 2018-2019
Riie was a visiting fellow at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in June, 2019.
Riie was a visiting fellow at the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester in May, 2018.
Taru was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Comparative Culture at the Sophia University in Tokyo in June-July, 2018.
Past teaching on the sociology of culture and social change
A lecture course “Social Change” (being a part of the teaching of the BA and MA social science programs at the University of Tampere) to be held by Semi on spring term 2019 (starting on 22 January 2019).
A new, thematic MA thesis seminar, on the topics broadly related to DYNAMIC’s interests, starting in fall term 2018, run by Semi, Riie and Taru (the first meeting will be after the general orientation period/idea paper stage, compulsory to all new MA students in the social science program, in/around mid-October 2018).
A lecture course “Introduction to Sociology of Culture” (being a part of the teaching of the BA social science program at the University of Tampere) to be held by Taru on spring term 2019 (starting on 7 March 2019).
Taru holds a lecture on April 15th at the University of Turku on “Food and Eating as Distinction” (Ruoka ja syöminen erontekona) as part of a lecture course on consumption organised by economic sociology unit.
A lecture course “Cultural Sociology” (a part of the teaching of the BA and MA social science programs at the University of Tampere) was held by Semi, Riie and Taru between 16 January and 6 March 2018. The course description (in Finnish) is still available here.
Taru held a lecture on April 3rd at the University of Turku on “Food and Eating as Distinction” (Ruoka ja syöminen erontekona) as part of a lecture course Economy, Consumption and Lifestyle (Talous, kulttuuri ja elämäntapa) organised by economic sociology unit.
Past events
The 9th National Conference in Cultural Studies and 6th national Conference in Cultural Policy Studies: “CHANGE“. 13-14 December 2019, Tampere, Finland.
Semi’s inaugural lecture at Tampere University, “Comparative Sociology of Culture and Social Change” (in Finnish) will be held on 13 September 2019 in Tampere (main building, auditorium A1).
14th Conference of the European Sociological Association “EUROPE AND BEYOND: BOUNDARIES, BARRIERS AND BELONGING“, Manchester, the UK, 20-23 August 2019.
The ASA 114th Annual Meeting, “Engaging Social Justice for a Better World“, 10-13 August 2019, New York, the US.
Sosiologipäivät (Annual Meeting of the Westermarck Society), “Eriarvoisuuden monet kasvot“, 28-29 March 2019, Turku, Finland.
Sociology Research Seminar at Tampere University, 14 February 2019 (with Riie & Taru giving a presentation based on paper “Avoiders gonna avoid: The anatomy of cultural non-participation in Finland, 2007 to 2018.”).
Rethinking Cultural Journalism and Cultural Critique in Digital Media Culture. International Conference organized by Nete Nørgaard Kristensen and colleagues, 22-23 November 2018, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
ECREA 2018 Lugano, 7th European Communication Conference. Centers and Peripheries: Communication, Research, Translation. 31 October-3 November 2018, Lugano, Switzerland.
SCUD/Rising Inequalities workshop, 4-5 October 2018, Paris, France.
Consumption and Consumerism: Conceptual and Empirical Sociological Challenges. Midterm Conference of RN05: European Sociological Association’s Research Network on the Sociology of Consumption, 29 August-1 September 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark.
XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology, “Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities“, 15-21 July 2018, Toronto, Canada.
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2018, Taru giving a public lecture entitled “Culinary capital, taste and the foodies: food-based social distinction in Finland”, 12 July 2018, Tokyo, Japan. The abstract of the lecture is available here.
The monthly research workshop of the Global Japanese Food Research group (Institute of Comparative Culture, Sophia University, Tokyo), 27 June 2018, Tokyo, Japan (with Taru giving an invited talk about the ongoing research projects related to food and cultural stratification).
TCuPS workshop in Tampere, 11-12 June 2018.
ACSS 2018 Kobe, The Asian Conference of Social Sciences. Surviving and Thriving: In Pursuit of a Sustainable World, 8-10 June, 2018, Kobe, Japan.
A workshop on “Convergencies and Divergencies in Cultural Stratification Systems: Looking for Patterns and Powerful Explanatory Variables” to be held at the European University, 28-29 May 2018, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Research seminar of the Department of Social Sciences (Oxford Brookes University), 24 May 2018, Oxford, UK (with Riie giving an invited talk about cultural stratification and participation in Finland).
The monthly research seminar of the Sustainable consumption institute (University of Manchester), 8 May 2018, Manchester, UK (with Riie giving an invited talk about cultural stratification and participation in Finland and the ongoing research projects).
A workshop “Cultural Capital and Inequalities in the 21st Century: Reflections on Current Work”. 18-19 April 2018, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Southern Sociological Society (SSS) Annual Meeting, “Racial Theory, Analysis, and Politics in Trump America“, 4-7 April, 2018, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki. Kollegium Talks: Yhteiskunnan aistit: maku. (Social Senses: Taste). 28 March 2018, Helsinki, Finland (with Semi participating in a panel discussion with Katriina Järvinen and Hanna Ylöstalo). Video available here.
Sosiologipäivät (Annual Meeting of the Westermarck-Society), “Kiertokulkuja“, 15-16 March 2018, Joensuu, Finland (with Riie and Taru participating the working group “Culture and Consumption” – Riie presented her Academy project on cultural disengagement, Taru presented theoretical-methodogical notions on categorical tolerance).
Sociology Research Seminar at the University of Tampere, 8 March 2018 (with Semi giving a presentation on “Enter Culture, Exit Arts”).
Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, “As Times Go By: Social and Institutional Change“, 21-25 February 2018, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Sibelius Academy, “Historiantutkimuksen torstaifoorumi”, 18 January 2018, Helsinki (with Semi giving an invited talk about legitimization of popular culture and popularization of highbrow culture).
A meeting concerning the new survey to be collected in 2018 with the members of the ‘old’ Cultural Capital and Social Differentiation project, Tiedekulma, Helsinki, 24 November 2017.
A meeting concerning the new survey to be collected in 2018, Statistics Finland, 15 November 2017.
A public lecture at the Turku Main Library on Finnish Food Culture and Culinary Taste (given by Taru), 2 November 2017.
28th European Meeting of Cultural Journals, organized by the European network of cultural journals, Eurozine, Tartu, Estonia, 20-22 October 2017, with Semi giving an invited presentation about the study on the changes in the European quality newspapers’ culture sections from 1960 to 2010.
A NOS-HS (The joint committee for Nordic research councils within the humanities and social sciences) workshop “Rising Inequalities”, Copenhagen, Denmark, 14-15 September 2017. (Also known as a SCUD Network workshop.)
13th Conference of the European Sociological Association “(Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities”, Athens, Greece, 29 August – 1 September 2017.