Speakers Series 2018-2019, Spring
Organized jointly by the IASR and the New Social Research Programme (NSR)
Lecturers’ power point presentations (pdf) will be added
IASR lectures from Spring 2016 and earlier lectures available in Radio Moreeni as podcasts here.
Time: On Tuesdays, at 16.15-17.45, starting from 22 January 2019
Place: Tampere University, Pinni B, lecture hall B1096, Kanslerinrinne 1
Programme
Updated on 3 May 2019
22.01. Making A Serial Killer: Class, Conflict, and the Case of Billy Gohl
Dr Aaron Goings, IASR
This presentation explores the intersections of myth, memory, and history in the life of William “Billy” Gohl, an early twentieth century labor activist. It was not Gohl’s labor activism that made him one of the most famous residents in the history of the Olympic Peninsula. Instead, he is remembered as the “Ghoul of Grays Harbor,” a serial killer who terrorized the waterfront district of Grays Harbor. Many studies have estimated that Gohl murdered between forty and two-hundred men, with some true crime writers suggesting he was one of America’s most prolific murderers. Despite Gohl’s renown, he was tried and convicted of only one murder and there is surprising little evidence that he was a serial killer. To help understand why Gohl ended up in prison and why he was blamed for scores of murders, I will place the Gohl case within the context of the long and bloody history of anti-labor activism in the United States. Indeed, like thousands of other American labor and left-wing activists, Gohl ended up behind bars because of the efforts of a dedicated group of employers, labor spies, and newspaper writers.
19.02. Brexit, Citizenship and Sovereignty: A Short Analysis of the Court of Justice’s Judgment on the Revocation of Article 50 TEU
Professor Jo Shaw, NSR
Since the judgment of the Court of Justice in the so-called Wightman case, referred by the Scottish courts, we now have some insights into what the process of withdrawal from the European Union looks like from a legal perspective. In its judgment, the Court emphasised the sovereignty of the withdrawing state and also noted the impacts of withdrawal upon all EU citizens. This paper will analyse some of the issues that this raises for issues of sovereignty and citizenship in what has been called the UK’s “troubled membership” of the European Union.
05.03. Mobilities, Politics and Solidarities: People on the Move across and around the Mediterranean Sea
Dr Anitta Kynsilehto, NSR
The contemporary context of migration governance in the Mediterranean neighbourhood can be characterized by successive crises. The European Union member-states are pushing the responsibility for search and rescue operations between themselves and doing everything to transfer these responsibilities outside the territory of the EU. This talk traces the developments towards enhanced outsourcing of ‘migration management’, border control and asylum, and discusses the ways in which solidarity figures in the debates that seek to seal the EU’s external borders and increasingly question the openness of the internal ones. Besides debates of state-level solidarity or lack thereof, the talk brings forth and examines multiple practices of solidarity that are enacted with, for and by the people on the move.
19.03. Gender, Party Politics and Democracy in Europe: A Study of European Parliament’s Party Groups
Professor Johanna Kantola, SOC
European Parliament’s (EP) party groups are crucial to democratic representation in the EU. Much of the academic research about the party groups has been gender-blind. The aim of the talk is to, first, introduce the ERC Consolidator Grant funded research project EUGenDem, which provides a systematic analysis of the gendered policies and practices of European party politics. The research comprises a comparative study of the European Parliament’s (EP) party groups and generates empirical findings about the significance of gender in the current party political transformations in Europe.Second, the talk introduces the findings about a recent study into the gendered experiences of women MEPs from two Nordic countries, Denmark and Finland, to illustrate the significance of the bigger project. The findings are based on interview data with 18 women MEPs from these two member states and explore their perceptions of gender equality in the political groups. The findings illustrate that party groups exhibit some shared and some diversified gendered norms as well as concrete practices for advancing the position of women, including informal women’s networks. We draw attention to the lack of m/paternity leave rights in the EP and the lack of political will within the party groups to tackle this, which is cementing exclusionary practices of the institution further.
02.04. Freedom of Movement – White Privilege or Universal Human Right?
Dr Jukka Könönen, IASR
‘Of all the specific liberties which may come into our minds when we hear the word ‘freedom’, freedom of movement is historically the oldest and also the most elementary’, Hannah Arendt once wrote. In practice, freedom of movement has become a birth-right privilege of Western citizens, whereas people from the Global South, in particular, are subjected to the increasingly repressive border regime. Despite the fact that the differential allocation of mobility rights contradicts the elementary liberal principle of equal opportunities and resembles the feudal system or ‘global apartheid’, the calls for ‘open borders’ are labeled ‘utopian’. Open borders would contribute to global equality as well as economic growth and resolve the deathly impasse of the current border system. While the freedom of movement could be realizable within the border system, the main challenge concerns the migrants’ position, residence time and rights after the arrival. This lecture addresses the problems of the current border regime drawing on the contemporary debates on open borders and discusses the way forward.
NB! Professor Rainer Winter’s lecture on 02.04. has been cancelled
16.04. No lecture – Dr Jukka Könönen’s lecture rescheduled for 02.04.
14.05. From Anti-gender Wars to Black Protests: Recent Gendered Political Mobilizations in Poland
Dr Barbara Gaweda, IASR
In recent years, Polish politics has witnessed unprecedented levels of gendered political mobilizations, albeit from seemingly opposite normative stances. Between 2012 and 2014, Poland experienced the discursive and institutional campaign against ‘gender ideology’. The clash took the form of virulent attacks against gender equality+ policies travelling from the catholic establishment and right-wing media to the local and national levels of administration and parliament. On the other hand, between 2016 and 2018, there was a new wave of mass women’s protests against the planned criminalization of abortion and ‘against the violence of the government’. Both the ‘war on gender’ and the ‘black protests’ were unexpected political mobilizations along gendered categories. What was the significance of these mobilizations in contemporary Polish politics? What work was done by the deployment of gender in these political mobilizations? Moving between the domestic and the international levels, I explore the political connections between gender, nation, religion, and the state on the Polish example.
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What is the IASR? – The Institute for Advanced Social Research, IASR) is the research collegium of Tampere University. It grants annually one- or two-year research positions for Professorial Fellows, Senior Research Fellows and Postdoctoral Research Fellows studying society to promote high-level multidisciplinary research and international interaction in the university.
What is the Speakers Series of Tampere University? – The Speakers Series is a series of Studia Generalia Lectures in the Study of Society organized weekly by Tampere University Institute for Advanced Social Research (IASR) in cooperation with the New Social Research Programme (NSR). The lectures are given by the Research Fellows as well as the distinguished guests of the IASR and the NSR. For the programme, please check the IASR website www.uta.fi/iasr/lectures/.
Most doctoral students can also get 2 ECTS for attending a minimum of six IASR Lectures, altogether 6 ECTS at the maximum. These 2 ECTS for attending 6 lectures can be earned during two successive terms.
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Speakers Series 2018-2019, Autumn
Organized jointly by the IASR and the New Social Research Programme (NSR)
Lecturers’ power point presentations (pdf) will be added
IASR lectures from Spring 2016 and earlier lectures available in Radio Moreeni as podcasts here
Time: On Tuesdays, at 14.15-15.45, starting from 18 September 2018
Place: University of Tampere, Pinni B, lecture hall B1096, Kanslerinrinne 1
Programme
Updated on 15 November 2018
18.09. For a Holistic Social Science: The NACEVP Model Applied to the Environment, Gender and Populism
Professor Risto Heiskala, IASR
This talk builds a holistic research programme showing the path away from the contemporary disciplinary fragmentation of the social sciences toward a holistic approach, which considers society as one whole and is capable of bridging the gap between the human and natural sciences. The scheme is based on Michael Mann’s IEMP model studying the Ideological, Economic, Military, and Political sources of power in historical sociology. In the talk it is extended to the NACEVP model, which is a social-theoretical research programme for the study of all objects covering Natural, Artefactual, Cultural, Economic, Violence-related, and Political sources of power. The model is evaluated by examining three brief case analyses on environmental problems, gender, and the rise of populism.
02.10. “A Sacred Responsibility to Remember?” Famine Memorials and Their Importance in Finland and Ireland
Dr Andrew Newby, IASR
This talk examines the “Great Famines” which struck Ireland (1840s) and Finland (1860s) during the Nineteenth Century. It will start with a brief overview of some of the comparisons and contrasts in Irish and Finnish history, before focusing specifically on the famines and their commemoration: (i) what do the differences in commemoration in the two countries tell us about their own internal historical narratives, and how might these narratives be challenged by adopting a comparative approach? (ii) what do the locations, chronology and forms of the (approximately ninety) Finnish memorials contribute to our understanding of local and national identity?
16.10. German Reconciliation Policy after World War II
Dr Benedikt Schoenborn, IASR
The lecture addresses German efforts to reconcile with wartime enemies during the first thirty years after World War II. While the German society started to engage in debates about the Nazi past only in the 1960s, in international politics reconciliation became a key objective already by 1950. The lecture focuses on selected elements of West German policy from a historian’s viewpoint, for example on Willy Brandt’s iconic Kniefall (falling to his knees) at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial, and includes analytical elements from peace studies.
30.10. Zeitgeist: A Theory of Global Social Change
Professor Pertti Alasuutari, TasTI, IASR
How does social change take place? When similar things happen in different parts of the world, people talk about Zeitgeist, but how does it actually work; how is it that actors involved have ended up creating isomorphism in people’s practices throughout the world? In the lecture I introduce a theory of global social change identifying areas in which global standards have evolved and whereby new trends emerge every now and then. That has happened, I suggest, in four domains: politics, economy, technology and aesthetics. In this instance aesthetics is understood in its broad meaning: it denotes the sensuality or emotionality of human beings. To illustrate the theory of global change, in the talk I discuss one example from each of the four domains.
13.11. Resisting Finnish Colonialism: The Case of Sámi Activism (pdf)
Professor Tarja Väyrynen, IASR
This lecture discusses the nexus of colonial violence and peacebuilding through the example of Finnish-Sámi settler colonial relations. Violence that functions through the (gendered) indigenous bodies renders the bodies mute as violence embedded in these relations is structural, slow as well as epistemic. Yet, the multiple forms of colonial violence can be resisted as new Sámi activism demonstrates. Dismantling colonial relations requires comprehensive processes, approaches and stages that transform the relations toward more sustainable, peaceful, relations. Nations do not always want to recognize colonial relations and the existence of the indigenous populations at the core of the nation and, thereby, long-term peacebuilding and reconciliation is difficult.
27.11. On the Boundaries of Science, Spirituality and Medicine – Establishment of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as a Medical Subfield
Associate Professor Jenny-Ann Brodin Danell, Umeå University
In this talk I will discuss various aspects of how complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is establishing as a medical subfield, and how this process is questioned and negotiated by a number of actors (such as researchers, medical professionals, users/patients, politicians, and interest organizations). This will be based on several studies I have done on CAM, based on bibliometric studies but also on interviews and documents.
11.12. What Kind of Culture Is ‘Game Culture’?
Professor Frans Mäyrä, IASR
‘Culture’ is a complex and ambiguous concept. The cultural study of games aims to understand what the cultural characteristics of games are, while also unravelling the operation of wider, socio-cultural contexts that are essential for games to be actualized in play, and in other meaning-making processes. In terms of history, one can seek to understand e.g. the evolution of distinctive ‘chess culture’, but also the roles that a game like chess has played in different cultures, around the world. Currently, the scope and forms of game culture are perhaps more diversified and pervasive than ever before. Coupled with new information and communication technologies, games have expanded into extensive virtual worlds, as well as entered the streets as new kinds of location-based, mobile games. Simultaneously, large parts of actual game playing remain invisible. In the Finnish Player Barometer study, it is notable that rather casual games – such as Solitaire (Pasianssi), or Lotto – are leading the list of most popular games that people play. One can say that there is not one ‘game culture’, but several, ranging from the daily routines of casual game players to the passionate dedication of game hobbyists and professionals of various kinds. How we define ‘game culture’ also depends on our theoretical perspective and knowledge interests. Seeking particularities, cultural differences and situated identities, we will find many gaming subcultures. Looking at the more general and wide-ranging dimensions of games-related meaning making, we will find how our cultures and societies in general are displaying more interest in games – perhaps moving towards a ‘Ludic Society’, while being influenced by cultural processes of ‘ludification’.
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What is the IASR? – The Institute for Advanced Social Research, IASR) is the research collegium of the University of Tampere. It grants annually one- or two-year research positions for Professorial Fellows, Senior Research Fellows and Postdoctoral Research Fellows studying society to promote high-level multidisciplinary research and international interaction in the university.
What is the Speakers Series of the University of Tampere? – The Speakers Series is a series of Studia Generalia Lectures in the Study of Society organized weekly by the University of Tampere Institute for Advanced Social Research (IASR) in cooperation with the New Social Research Programme (NSR). The lectures are given by the Research Fellows as well as the distinguished guests of the IASR and the NSR. For the programme, please check the IASR website www.uta.fi/iasr/lectures/.
Most doctoral students can also get 2 ECTS for attending a minimum of six IASR Lectures, altogether 6 ECTS at the maximum. These 2 ECTS for attending 6 lectures can be earned during two successive terms.
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