Doctoral Programme in Social Sciences

Dear all,

We have the pleasure to invite you to our two-day conference titled “Emotions, Populism and Polarised Politics, Media, and Culture“, taking place at the University of Helsinki, August 19-20, 2019.

The conference is organized by two Academy of Finland funded projects, Mainstreaming Populism in the 21st Century (MaPo), and Whirl of Knowledge: Cultural Populism in European Polarised Politics and Societies (WhiKnow). It is also organized in connection with two Helsinki Summer School courses “Rhetoric-Performative and Post-Foundational Analysis” and “Populism on the Loose in Europe and Beyond”. Both draw on the political philosophy of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, taking forward the discourse theoretical, hegemony-focused Essex school approach.

The conference seeks to address different issues from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, especially those exploring the intersection of different positionalities and challenging bounded national contexts. Some indicative themes are:

• Populism and social movements
• Radical democracy
• Subjectivity, affects and gender
• Politics, polarization, hybrid media
• Cultural populism and politics

Please submit your abstracts to: marina.vulovic@helsinki.fi by April 15, 2019.

All further details can be found in the attached CfA.

We look forward to your participation!

Kinds regards,

Marina Vulović

Doctoral Candidate
University of Helsinki

Call for contributors & participants

 

Workshop ‘Trade unions, democracy and political power in France, the UK and Europe’

 

Co-hosted by the Maison Française d’Oxford, and the European Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and supported by the Europaeum Network

 

Date & venue: 30^th May, Maison Française d’Oxford, 2-10 Norham Rd, Oxford, OX2 6SE, UK (tbc)

 

We are seeking papers and contributions on the nature of trade unionism, industrial democracy and trade union power in the UK, France and elsewhere in Europe. Special interest will be shown for papers relating to trade unionism in France, President Emmanuel Macron’s ongoing and proposed labour reforms, and the rise of the ‘gilets jaunes’ (yellow vest) movement since November 2018.

 

Trade Unions in Europe today

Labour unions in Europe face a range of cross-cutting challenges. including the near universal decline in membership, the collapse of traditionally highly unionised blue-collar industries, and the changes that have been wrought by the 4^th industrial revolution. On top of this, since the 1980s, established linkages between unions and especially social democratic parties have almost universally weakened, further depriving unions and workers of a traditionally key source of power and influence.

With this, the late-twentieth century has seen the virtual disappearance of the distinctive social formation termed ‘working class’ which formed the backbone of European trade unionism for the past century, and the growth of atypical, precarious and temporary forms of employment. This environment makes any collectivist vision of society, and the notion of solidarity upon which trade unionism is based, difficult to sustain.

Thus, this workshop invites papers and contributions that explore factors including (but not limited to):

 

• the nature of trade union power in Europe today

 

• the contribution of trade unions to government reform agendas through neo-corporatist arrangements and other forms of governance

 

• relations and alliances between trade unions and political parties and other civil society actors

 

• the regulation of new forms of employment, including precarious employment

 

• the emergence of new forms of collective action and organisation among workers, including via the use of digital technologies

 

• the coordination of transnational activities among workers

 

• campaigns and initiatives directed at consumers, new forms of training and research activities, social movement unionism, or other forms of collective action involving workers

 

The one-day workshop will run from 10.30am on 30 May and will be arranged around three panels with up to four speakers and a discussant, and a dinner and roundtable discussion on the future of workplace democracy in Europe. There will be the opportunity for participants to contribute to an edited volume based on the subject and output of the conference.

 

To express interest, please send a 300 word abstract and any queries to barry.colfer@sant.ox.ac.uk by 5pm (GMT) on Thursday 14^th April.
Students currently enrolled on a graduate course (master, PhD) at a Europaeum member university can apply for this event. Please cc euroinfo@europaeum.ox.ac.uk into your application email.

Welcome to the second session of the new STS Helsinki Seminar Series on Monday, March 18^th!

The STS Helsinki Seminar Series is a newly founded seminar series by the STS Helsinki research collective. Our aim is to create a space for in-depth conversations about current research in Science and Technology Studies (STS). The topics cover a wide range of contemporary issues, such as climate change, the role of experts, medicine, genetics, gender, robotics or organic food. The seminars function as a platform for strengthening the STS community in Finland and bringing STS to new audiences. All scholars, students and audiences interested in the interaction between science, society and technology are welcome! 

Seminar programme/Spring 2019

Venue: 3^rd floor seminar room, Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies (HCAS), Fabianinkatu 24 (except for April 26^th)

18 March, 12.15-13.45             

Andrea Butcher, postdoctoral researcher, University of Helsinki

Tackling antimicrobial resistance in biosocially demanding settings: the challenge for low-income regions

26 April, 12.15-13.45

Nik Brown, Professor of Sociology, York University

TBA

NB. Different location!

21 May, 12.15-13.45

Liina-Maija Quist, postdoctoral researcher, University of Helsinki

Epistemic practices of marine scientists examining climate change

NB. Change of date!

Abstracts and biographies will be made available on the STS Helsinki blog.

Follow our updates on Twitter @stshelsinki

There are still some places left at the upcoming optional Master’s level course in European and Nordic studies. The course is also suitable for, and may be of interest to, doctoral students in the fields of political science, history, philosophy or literature. The course provides an introduction to the study of concepts and metaphors in political, historical, and theoretical research settings. The first part of the course introduces the key methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives to the study of concepts and metaphors, offering analytical tools useful for various kinds of research settings. The second part applies this knowledge to cases from current European politics and European intellectual history, encouraging the students to present case analyses of their own.

 

Course page and more information: https://courses.helsinki.fi/en/ENS-338/126849595

 

Registration in Weboodi.

 

Dear PhD Candidates,

You are warmly welcome to Fulbright Forum on Monday 11th of March, 2019. The Forum will take place in Athena-building (Siltavuorenpenger 3A) room 302, starting at 10.15 am. The program is on the attachment. In the Forum visiting Fulbright-scholars in Finland will be presenting their projects. You are welcome to take part in the entire program or just pop in to listen to the presentation(s) of your interest.

Next Friday,  Mervi Leppäkorpi (University of Eastern Finland / University of Helsinki) will give a presentation entitled “Between political citizenship and vulnerability. The (re)construction of migrant irregularity in migrants’ encounters with supporting civil society” in the EuroStorie research seminar.

The seminar is open to all without registration.

When: 15.3.2019, 13:00-14:00.

Where: Meeting room 229, Psychologicum (Siltavuorenpenger 1 A, 00170 Helsinki)

Helsinki Inequality Initiative workshop and public lecture day 26 March 2019

Dear member of the Helsinki University research community,

Inequality is one the constitutive questions of social sciences and humanities. Recognizing inequality, understanding its diverse mechanisms and articulations and searching for political responses pose serious challenges for developing safe, sustainable and democratic societies. Digitalization, datafication, multiculturalism, migration, urbanization and segregation, diverging life trajectories of health and well-being, sustainability of welfare systems and obstacles od political participation are all examples of intertwined research topics that unavoidably raise about how life opportunities questions of people vary, how such tendencies are tolerated and how they can be alleviated.

 

Such and related questions have captured the attention of many researchers at University of Helsinki. In order to support this multidisciplinary community at UH has – with the support of Academy of Finland profiling action – launched the Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEQ) [working title]. Many of you are hopefully already preliminarily familiar with this.

 

We are now inviting all researchers who are inspired by and interested in these questions to a theme day and workshop in which the action plan and concept of the Initiative will be discussed and finalized.

 

The day begins with a public lecture in the morning and continues with the workshop in the afternoon.

 

Programme

 

Tuesday 26 March 2019 (PIII, ground floor, Porthania, Yliopistonkatu 3)

            

 

10-12                Keynote lecture

Professori Göran Therborn:

Increasing Inequality: Paradox, Puzzles, and Perspectives

 

13-16                Inequality Initiative (INEQ) workshop

 

The workshop offers an opportunity to share your comments and ideas and develop the final shape of the Initiative. We hope for a wide participation across different fields of research and faculties. All those signed up for the workshop will be sent before a short draft of the action plan and instructions on how the groups work will be organized.

 

Please register for the workshop by 18 March:

https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/96642/lomake.html

 

If you plan to attend only to the public lecture before the workshop, please register here:

https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/96644/lomake.html

 

Feel free to circulate the invitation!

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Risto Kunelius (risto.kunelius@helsinki.fi, P353, Porthania) started as the research director of the Inequality Initiative in January 2019. Earlier, he served as a professor of journalism research at University of Tampere and the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities. His ongoing research focuses on media and politics, public debates about privacy and security and the coverage of climate change.

 

Meri Kulmala on (meri.kulmala@helsinki.fi, P351, Porthania) works as the research coordinator of the Initiative. She is a sociologist and has worked on issues related to Russia and social welfare. She is currently leading an international interdisciplinary research project on child welfare reform in Russia and is involved in another project exploring youth well-being in the Arctic region.

 

The office of the Inequality Initiative is located in Porthania, 5th floor (on the corridor of Faculty of Law). We are happy to hear all ideas, comments and questions!

 

Welcome to the lecture and workshop!

 

 

Risto Kunelius                                         Meri Kulmala