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Tampereen yliopiston Tieteen, teknologian ja innovaatioiden tutkimuskeskus (TaSTI)

TaSTI Newsletter 1/2025

The new year has brought changes at the Tampere Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI). In January, TaSTI moved from Pinni to the sixth floor of Linna building to join other social scientists at Tampere University. 

We have also updated our website. You can read about the four TaSTI research themes and about TaSTI activities here https://research.tuni.fi/tasti-en/ (in English) and here https://research.tuni.fi/tasti/ (in Finnish).

Upcoming events:

Health in society – Seminar on agency and social context of health care will take place on 10 February 2025 at 12.00-15.00 in Väinö Linna Auditorium, Linna building, Tampere University. Come and join us for intriguing presentations and open dialogue! Also, between sessions, there will be a coffee break provided by the TRANSFORM research platform. More information on the website: https://www.tuni.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/health-society-seminar-agency-and-social-context-health-care 

The Tampere IAS seminar Will Science, Technology, and Experts Save the World? will take place on February 19, 2025 at Tampere University. This seminar delves into the pressing questions concerning the interplay between science, technology, expert knowledge, and society. It invites a critical and interdisciplinary dialogue among the diverse academic community at Tampere University. The event includes keynote lectures by Darrin Durant (Associate Professor, University of Melbourne) on “Imagined expert authority in technopolitical decisions”, Johan Söderberg (Professor, Gothenburg University) on “The precarious future for evidence-based decision-making and expertise in a world shaped by authoritarian populism”, Pia Vuolanto (Academy Research Fellow, TaSTI) on “Contestation of expertise. Medicine as a case in point,” and Antti Kuusisto (Senior Research Fellow, Tampere IAS) on “Interpretability as the next step in AI.” More information on the website: https://research.tuni.fi/tampere-ias/news/welcome-to-the-tampere-ias-open-colloquium-will-science-technology-and-experts-save-the-world-on-19-february-2025/

On Monday 17 March, at 12-14, TaSTI and the Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation (TRANSIT) will co-organise an online research seminar on politics and practices of comparison. The seminar opens at 12:15 with a talk by Michael Guggenheim (Goldsmiths, University of London). Afterwards, he will be joined by Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen and Nelli Piattoeva for a panel discussion on the themes of the book Practising Comparison: Logics, Relations, Collaborations (edited by Joe Deville, Michael Guggenheim and Zuzana Hrdličková). More information will be available on the TaSTI website soon.

TaSTI research seminar Studying animals from social science perspectives will take place on October 2-3, 2025, at Tampere University. The seminar delves into the human-animal intersections and explores questions related to animal experimentation, ethics of human-non-human relations, animal rights and human-animal welfare. The seminar presentations draw from multispecies studies, post-humanist thinking, and new materialism, among others. The seminar includes a keynote lecture by Professor Pru Hobson-West (University of Nottingham, the UK). More information in the next newsletter!

In addition, TaSTI organizes 1-2 early career seminars each year. Our next seminar on 6 June 2025 will be a networking event for PhD and postdoctoral researchers working on science, technology and innovation studies across the faculties of Tampere University. Come and talk to other early career researchers about your projects and research interests! Details about how to sign up will be included in the next newsletter. For more information, you can also contact Valtteri Vähä-Savo: valtteri.vaha-savo@tuni.fi

Upcoming courses – open to all students at Tampere University!

New publications by the TaSTI community:

  • Meskus, M., Oikkonen, V. & Temmes, M. (2024). The Processuality of ‘Sex’ in Biomedicine: Exploring Stem Cell Research, Cancer Medicine and Vaccine Safety Research. Body & Society 30(4), 85-110. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X241293033
  • Wagner, A., Polak, P., Rudek, T. J., Świątkiewicz-Mośny, M., Anderson, A., Bockstal, M., Gariglio, L., Hasmanová Marhánková, J., Hilário, A. P., Hobson-West, P., Iorio, J., Kuusipalo, A., Numerato, D., Scavarda, A., Alcântara da Silva, P., Soares Moura, E., & Vuolanto, P. (2024). Agency in urgency and uncertainty: Vaccines and vaccination in European media discourses. Social Science and Medicine, 346, 116725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116725 
  • Kuusipalo, A., Nurmi, J., Järvinen, K.-M., & Vuolanto, P. (2024). Trust and the public vaccine debate in Finland before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In L. Borin, M.-M. Hammarlin, D. Kokkinakis, & F. Miegel (Eds.), Vaccine Hesitancy in the Nordic Countries: Trust and Distrust During the COVID-19 Pandemic (pp. 109-124). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305859-9 
  • Parviainen, J., Coeckelbergh, M. (2024). Sophia the Robot as a Political Choreography to Advance Economic Interests: An Exercise in Political Phenomenology and Critical Performance-Oriented Philosophy of Technology. In: Breyer, T., Gerner, A.M., Grouls, N., Schick, J.F. (eds) Diachronic Perspectives on Embodiment and Technology. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 46. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50085-5_4
  • Oikkonen, V. & Helosvuori, E. (2024) Living with acuteness in chronic illness: The temporal underpinnings of endometriosis. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12909
  • Torkkola, S., Tyni, P., Parviainen, J., & Sendra, A. (2024). Terveydenhuollon muuttuvat viestintäkäytännöt: Kyselytutkimus terveydenhuollon asiantuntijoille sosiaalisen median mahdollisuuksista ja uhista potilastyössä. Media & viestintä, 47(4), 53–78. https://journal.fi/mediaviestinta/article/view/130759
  • Salomaa, A., Reinekoski, T., Salminen, H., Krivochenitser, K., Hukkinen, J. I., Lehtonen, T.-K. (2025) Disjointed modes of building resilience to socio-environmental crises. Ecology & Society 30 (1). https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol30/iss1/art6/.

Recent PhD theses:

Calls for papers:

Other news:

Interview with TaSTi Director Mianna Meskus: https://www.tuni.fi/en/news/professor-mianna-meskus-studies-scientific-knowledge-and-technology-ways-govern-life (English); https://www.tuni.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/professori-mianna-meskus-tutkii-tiedetta-ja-teknologiaa-elaman-hallintana (Finnish).

The next TaSTI newsletter will be published in March 2025. If you have news that would be of interest to the TaSTI community, please contact Venla Oikkonen (venla.oikkonen@tuni.fi).

Director of TaSTI, Mianna Meskus, invites all interested senior and junior colleagues to join in our collaborative work, including adding relevant content to our new web pages! Please don’t hesitate to contact mianna.meskus@tuni.fi.