Our aim

The AGORA Centre coordinates and supports multidisciplinary research, research networks and research projects related to questions of social justice and equality in a society. AGORA brings together scholars from a wide variety of backgrounds, who share an interest in social sciences; sociology, philosophy, policy studies, cultural studies, feminist studies, youth studies, and new methodologies in education and beyond. The Centre focuses on empirically-grounded theoretical considerations and developing further understanding of social justice and equality as a multifaceted societal, cultural, economic, and political  phenomenon.

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Key research themes

AGORA community offers a supportive environment for junior and senior researchers who are interested in questions of social justice and equality alongside far-reaching changes in terms of welfare state reforms and governance.

The Nordic welfare state’s shift towards competitive/neoliberal/therapeutic state is a prominent study within the Centre’s research. We aim at investigating cross-sectoral and transnational policies and educational and other societal practices especially in terms of marketisation, privatisation, psychologisation and learnification and in relation to children, young people and adults.

Intersectionalities, power, and agency, and societal mechanisms of inequalities are important themes for joint research groups and networks in the AGORA. The Centre unites and develops various research fields and research networks with eminent universities and researchers nationally and internationally.

Activities

We have provided seminars, workshops, lecture series in which over 3000 scholars, teachers, students, professionals and policy makers have participated.

AGORA holds workshops and regular research seminars, closely connected with social justice and equality perspectives. These research seminars are inclusive so that they create a unique, supportive environment for MA’s, PhD’s and post-doctoral researchers as well as university lecturers and professors. The seminars are useful especially to doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in terms of building their research careers. Along with research support, these seminars provide a site for future funding plans, development of teaching and collaborative writing. The Centre provides courses in Finnish and English. It contributes to the development of teaching from equality and social justice perspectives.

Collaboration

With networks in the Nordic countries, Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia, it is easy to create stronger collaboration related to centre’s themes. Through the networks, we can discuss and disseminate research results with researchers, educationalists and other actors in the field. The Centre encourages collaborative publishing, both nationally and internationally. Consequently, the Centre brings internationally recognised perspectives and emphases, thus improving the literature and offering ideas for more relevant practice from a multi-disciplinary perspective in relation to transition of young people.

The research center also served as a regional center of the Nordic Centre of Excellence Justice Through Education in the Nordic Countries.

Active engagement with the society

We are able to use our long-running experience in equality work and equality and social justice projects related to development of research-based teaching. The Centre arranges events bringing together researchers, teachers and other specialists, NGO’s, policy makers, political gatekeepers and other stake holders to discuss matters of education, social justice and equality.

We collaborate with the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Social and Health Affairs and the National Board of Education. The connections with a variety of educational and adult educational organisations are strong.

Why Social Justice and Equality?

Despite the diverse perspectives on and definitions of social justice and equality we should be aware of their conceptual limitations. The concept of social justice is complex due to its historical background. It is important to acknowledge its roots in certain political, economic, cultural and societal systems, one of the most essential ones being the western liberal democracy, where capitalism enables and constrains action and the state has the main authority in regulating the functioning of society. The notion of social justice is being criticised for being able to exist only within the framework of these societal conditions. This means that certain aspects of society, such as the state or the capital cannot be problematised from within this notion of social justice.

In AGORA, we are aware of different interpretations of social justice, and therefore we ask:

• What are the different definitions of social justice and equality and what is the relation between these concepts?
• What are the limits and possibilities of the concept of social justice?
• How should we organise the society in order to enable alternative notions of social justice and equality?
• How do social justice and equality get produced and regulated?
• How can theory be made more relevant to the struggles related to inequalities?
• How can theory as a form of practice be directed into social activism?