People

Director, Tampere research group on Religion & Society

Member, Steering Committee, Templeton Religion Trust (2021-24)

President, The Westermarck Society (Finnish sociological association) (2023)

Docent, Centre for Ethnic Relations & Nationalisms, University of Helsinki

Chair of the board of the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies

Recent select publications 

Ulybina, Olga, Laia Pi Ferrer & Pertti Alasuutari: “Intergovernmental organizations in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic: Organizational behaviour in crises and under uncertainty”. International Sociology 37(4), 2022, 415–438. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/02685809221094687

Qadir, Ali & Pertti Alasuutari: ”The Discursive Side of Sociological Institutionalism in the Study of Religion”. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 2022: 1-23, DOI https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-bja10075

Alasuutari, Pertti & Ali Qadir: Epistemic Governance: Social change in the modern world . London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2019. 

Alasuutari, Pertti & Valtteri Vähä-Savo: Owning worldwide principles: The case of American exceptionalism. Social Science Information 57 (4), 2018, 533–552. 

Pi Ferrer, Laia, Pertti Alasuutari & Leena Tervonen-Gonçalves: Looking at others in national policy-making: the construction of reference groups in Portugal and Spain from 2008 to 2013. European Politics and Society 20 (3), 2018, 333–347. 

Alasuutari, Pertti, Marjaana Rautalin & Jukka Tyrkkö: The rise of the idea of model in policymaking: The case of the British parliament, 1803–2005. European Journal of Sociology 59 (3), 2018, 341-363. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: Authority as epistemic capital. Journal of Political Power 11 (2), 2018, 165-190. 

Wang, Li & Pertti Alasuutari: Co-construction of the tourist experience in social networking sites: Two forms of authenticity intertwined. Tourist Studies 17 (4), 2017, 388–405. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: The Synchronization of National Policies: Ethnography of the Global Tribe of Moderns. London: Routledge 2016. 

Alasuutari, Pertti & Ali Qadir: Imageries of the social world in epistemic governance. International Sociology 31 (6), 2016, 633-652. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: The Discursive Side of New Institutionalism. Cultural Sociology 9 (2) 2015, 162–184. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: Following the Example of Other Countries? Policy Analysis of New Legislation in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 16 (3) 2014, 266-279. 

Alasuutari, Pertti and Ali Qadir: Epistemic governance: an approach to the politics of policy-making. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology 1, 2014, 67–84.

• Researchgate
• TCuPS

• Evaluating inner truth

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri & Venla Koivuluhta (2024) Three-dimensional trust: Disentangling trust relations in the context of converted asylum seekers. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2419502

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri & Venla Koivuluhta (2024) Building belief in belief – Navigating moral tensions through category work while assisting converted asylum seekers in Finland. In Lena Rose & Ebru Özturk (eds.) Asylum and Conversion from Islam to Christianity in Europe: Interdisciplinary Approaches. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 103-123.

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri, Joa Hiitola, Tuuli Innola, Anna Rönkä, Helena Louhela, Sanna Mustasaari & Seija Jalagin (2023) Syljen jäljistä varjosukupuihin: tutkimus kaupallisten DNA-teknologioiden vaikutuksista moninaisiin suhteisiin [From traces of spit to shadow family trees: Study on the effects of commercial DNA technologies on multiple relationships]. Sosiologia, (60)3-4, 195–211.

Välimaa, Mira, Valtteri Vähä-Savo & Johanna Hiitola (2023) Enrolling around – Reconfiguring place and space in the wake of a new reception centre in a small rural town. Population, Space and Place 29(3). http://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2623

Hiitola, Johanna, Zeinab Karimi & Valtteri Vähä-Savo (2021) Epävarmuuden jatkumot: Prekaarisuuden muodot ja sukupuolistunut väkivalta pakkomuuttajien elämänkuluissa. [Continuums of uncertainty: Forms of precarity and gendered violence in the lives of forced migrants]. Sukupuolentutkimus-Genusforskning 34(3), 34-46. 

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri, Jari Luomanen & Pertti Alasuutari (2021) Between rationalism and romanticism: metaphors in managing conflicting institutional logics in science and technology parks. Culture and Organization. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2021.1969650 

Hiitola, Johanna & Valtteri Vähä-Savo (2021) Reassembling attachments: place and well-being among Afghan refugees in a small rural town. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2021.1905507  

Hiitola, Johanna & Valtteri Vähä-Savo (2021) Genres of Departure: Forced Migrants’ Family Separation and Personal Narratives. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 11(3), 235–249. DOI: http://doi.org/10.33134/njmr.372 

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri (2020) Cross-national comparisons in epistemic governance: analysis of parliamentary debates from eight countries. Contemporary Politics, 26(5), 597-615. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2020.1813931 

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri (2020) Decoupling spheres of belonging in the Nordic welfare states. In Hiitola, Johanna, Kati Turtiainen, Sabine Gruber & Marja Tiilikainen (Eds.) Family life in transition: Borders, transnational mobility and welfare society in the Nordic countries. London: Routledge, 10-20. 

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri, Jukka Syväterä & Leena Tervonen-Gonçalves (2019) The authority of meta-organisations: Making the International Association of National Public Health Institutes attractive to prospective members. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 6(4), 474-502. https://doi.org/10.1080/23254823.2019.1612262 

Alasuutari, Pertti; Valtteri Vähä-Savo & Laia Pi Ferrer (2019) National Self-Image as a Justification in Policy Debates: An International Comparison. New Global Studies, 13(2), 167–189. https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2018-4038 

Alasuutari, Pertti & Valtteri Vähä-Savo (2018) Owning worldwide principles: The case of American exceptionalism. Social Science Information, 57(4), 533-552. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0539018418816192 

Vähä-Savo, Valtteri (2016) Sektoritutkimuksen genealogia. [Genealogy of Sectoral Research]. Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 2138. Tampere: Tampere University Press.