A new research project 'Irtikytketyt' (Disconnected) from Kone Foundation to start 1/2025

Tampere Group for Sociology of Culture has been awarded a new, four-year research project from the Kone Foundation to study digital disconnection in contemporary Finland. The project will start as of January 2025.

The new  project is titled ‘Irtikytketyt: Suomi digitaalisena yhteiskuntana ja kuinka jäädä tai jättäytyä siitä syrjään’, which translates to ’Disconnected: Contemporary Finland as a digital society and how to get excluded or voluntarily abstain from it’ (DISCO). The team consists of Semi Purhonen (PI), Ossi Sirkka (Postdoc), Ella Miller (PhD candidate), and one postdoc yet to be named.

The project involves a mixed-method investigation into (in)voluntary digital disconnection as a practice and as a social imaginary. The empirical parts of the project utilize population-level survey data (ISSP 2024 Digital Societies module), new interviews and comprehensive media/online discussion text data.

More info about the project (in Finnish) can be found from Kone Foundation’s website: https://koneensaatio.fi/apurahat-ja-residenssipaikat/irtikytketyt-nyky-suomi-digitaalisena-yhteiskuntana-ja-kuinka-jaada-tai-jattaytya-siita-syrjaan/. Kone Foundation is one of the biggest private foundations funding social sciences in Finland.