The new project, “Cultures of the Working Class in the 2020s: Fragmentation, Reproduction, Boundaries, Politics” (CuWoC), involves a multi-method, comprehensive investigation of contemporary working-class cultures—their cultural practices and tastes, worldviews and values—which are rarely studied in previous research, especially in Finland. Using unusually rich datasets (surveys, interviews and participant observation, and online discussions) allowing both tracking the trends through which the present-day working-class culture has become what it is and unravelling the up-to-date situation of current working-class cultures in their various modes, CuWoC asks the following: 1. What is the composition of the working-class culture in present-day Finland? 2. How has this composition changed in recent decades, and in what respects there is potential to change in the future? As the most systematic and comprehensive study thus far of working-class cultures conducted in Finland, CuWoC will be carried out by the Tampere Group for Sociology of Culture at Tampere University and its PI will be Prof. Semi Purhonen.
The Academy Project funding scheme is the most important funding instrument of the Research Council for Culture and Society for promoting the impact and renewal of research. In addition to the high scientific quality of the research plan, the Research Council for Culture and Society pays special attention to projects that combine high quality with strong academic and societal impact and scientific renewal. In the last call (September 2021), the success rate of Academy Project proposals was 12%.