People

About me

Dr. Elise Kraatila is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working in the field of narrative studies. Her research project at Tampere IAS concerns the rhetoric and epistemics of speculative storytelling across contemporary Finnish and Anglophone media environment.  Speculative narratives, in fiction as well as nonfictional texts like news media and science communication, are characterized by scenario-building and hypothetical or contrafactual ‘what if’ propositions. In the atmosphere of uncertainty that currently pervades our media discourses (captured by the term ‘permacrisis’, Collins Dictionaries Word of the Year 2022), making the future seem both unpredictable and precarious, such narratives are frequently used to consolidate, communicate and legitimize contingent knowledge about possible futures.

The project asks, what potential do these speculative narratives have to provide epistemic access to such futures – and how do they shape, expand or constrain our collective ability to imagine what those futures might look like?

About me

Jussi Lahtinen is a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University. In his doctoral dissertation, he used Finnish working-class literature as a source for contemporary social and cultural history. Lahtinen specializes in multidisciplinary research that combines theories and methods from history, sociology, and literary studies. 

More information, see Research Portal of Tampere University

 

Responsibilities

A project funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (2026–2028) titled “Working-Class Literature as a Depictor, Constructor, and Mediator of Class Experiences, 1952–2025.”

I also occasionally work as a part-time lecturer in the Degree Programme in History at Tampere University.

 

Field of expertise

Working-class studies
Narrative studies
Cultural and social history
Class studies
Welfare state research

 

Research topics

Finnish and Western social development since the Second World War

Finnish working-class culture (especially working-class literature) since the Second World War

The long-term development of Finnish sociocultural narratives

 

Research unit

History

Research fields

History
Narrative Studies
Sociology