Tieteen sensurointiyritykset ja tutkijoiden itsesensuuri uhkaavat akateemista vapautta

Tunnen tukijoita, jotka ovat hylänneet herkullisen tutkimusaiheen, koska heitä on pelottanut, että he joutuisivat kiistanalaisen aiheen tutkimisen takia vihamielisten tahojen tikun nokkaan. Heitäkin enemmän tunnen tutkijoita, jotka eivät suostu haastateltaviksi mediassa tai jotka eivät puhu julkisissa tilaisuuksissa tutkimuksensa tuloksista heihin kohdistuvien hyökkäysten pelossa. nonPeerReviewed

Mitä väliä sukupuolella? : ideoita ja ajatuksia tasa-arvosta keskustelemiseen yläkoulussa

Tutkitun tiedon puolesta

Halla-ahon ahdistus ja ironia

Perussuomalaisten puheenjohtaja Jussi Halla-aho on julkaissut blogiaan Scripta – kirjoituksia uppoavasta lännestä 2000-luvun alusta saakka. Blogi ja sen vieraskirjasta irrotettu Hommaforum on ollut merkittävässä roolissa kansallismielisen ja maahanmuutto-vastaisen liikehdinnän noustessa Suomessa. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastelemme suomalaisuuden ja kansallistunteen affektiivista performoimista blogissa. Luemme blogia retoris-performatiivisesti eli kiinnittäen huomiota tekstin retoriikkaan ja siihen, miten se tuottaa affektiivisia reaktioita. Tarkastelemme tekstien tapaa rakentaa populistiselle vastakkainasettelulle ominaisesti ”meidän” ja ”muiden” kategorioita, kaksoispuhetta strategiana sekä…

The Concept of Love in Masculinist Blogs : A Strategic Ideal

Love is often considered a positive emotion and an ethical relationship between people. The representations of love in contemporary culture usually emphasise its beneficial, even empowering effects. However, the fluidity of the concept also enables other kinds of representations of love to flourish. For example, the advocates of traditional gender order — masculinists or male rights activists (MRAs)-— use idealistic images of heterosexual love, often intertwined with the idealised heterosexual nuclear family, to promote repressive ideologies such as misogyny and antifeminism. This is increasingly done with the help of internet sites. In this chapter I wish to show that the fluidity of the c…

Vilken betydelse har könet? : idéer och tankar för jämställdhetsdiskussioner i högstadiet

Discursive Constructions of White Nordic Masculinities in Right-wing Populist Media

Using superordinate intersectionality as a theoretical framework, this article explores notions of men and masculinities within right wing populism. It is attentive to how the right-wing populist media in Finland and Sweden construct white Nordic masculinities through discursive interactions across several axes of difference: gender (masculinities); sexuality (heterosexuality); social class (elites); and race (whitenesses). Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as methodological approach, we show how the discursive constructions of white Nordic masculinities are context contingent, rendering them subject to constant reinterpretation and repositioning, at times privileging some axes of…

Intersections of Mobility and Belonging : Blogging Subjectivities of Finns on the Move

Abstract As components of the contemporary experience, mobility and displacement (Appadurai 1990; Said 2002) are accompanied by our need to belong: while global mobility is encouraged by and expected from the educated ex-pats and temporary workers, the “flows” of migrants cause “debates, challenges, and crises” in the European nation-states (Skey 2014). Yet, in the novel interest in digital mobilities, the analysis of personal experiences has been left aside. In this article, the focus is on affective accounts of mobility and belonging. The autobiographical narratives published in the blogosphere are analyzed to shed light on the processes of multi-sited place attachments. The analysis of i…

Ideological, Institutional and Affective Practices of Interpersonal Violence

The first chapter presents the book’s point of departure as well as its central concepts and structure. It outlines the current understandings of and theoretical approaches to the intersections of violence, gender and affect. The starting point is that gendered violence and violating practices are embedded in social structures of power and in inequalities, institutions, regimes and the symbolic order. They are manifested in human interaction as well as in cultural discourses and representations. The chapter also gives an overview of the abundant research and various perspectives involved in analysing the intersections of violence, gender and affect as well as the continuities and interconne…

Turvetta tupaan: faktat, valheet ja affektiivinen vastaanotto Turveinfo-mainoskampanjassa

Turpeen energiakäyttöä lobannut Turveinfo-kampanja näkyi laajasti eri medioissa alkuvuodesta 2017. Se herätti kiivaan ja tunnepitoisen vastareaktion. Kampanjan väitteitä pidettiin yksinkertaistavina, valheellisina ja joiltain osin myös loukkaavina. Tässä artikkelissa analysoimme mainoskampanjan sisältöä ja vastaanottoa sekä sen aiheuttamia reaktioita. Tarkastelemme erityisesti affektiivisuuden ja faktuaalisuuden suhdetta kampanjassa. Miten nykykulttuurissa käyty keskustelu vaihtoehtoisista totuuksista näkyy median moninaista kenttää hyväkseen käyttävän, lobbaajien tilaaman mainoskampanjan tulkinnoissa ja ehkä laajemminkin median tulkitsemisessa? Analyysimme viitekehyksenä toimivat affektite…

Sukupuolen luenta ja elämän kerronnan kolmio

Politics of Fear and Racialized Rape: Intersectional Reading of the Kempele Rape Case

Much of the anxiety, hatred, and fear felt toward asylum seekers as racialized others that had been aroused and incited during the summer and autumn of “the refugee crisis” of 2015 crystallized in the Kempele rape case. The case refers to the incident in which accusations were broadcast in the Finnish media that a suspected rape of a young girl by two refugees based at a newly established immigration detention center had occurred in the small town of Kempele in Northern Ostrobothnia on November 2015. It is an illuminating example of how race and ethnicity intertwine with gender in contemporary discussions that take place in both the traditional and social media. In this chapter I analyze th…

Tunteita ja politiikkoja

Nyrkit turpeessa : Turveinfo-mainoskampanja ja sen aiheuttama kohu yhteiskunnallisena dialogina

Reframing Gender Equality in Finnish Online Discussion on Immigration: Populist Articulations of Religious Minorities and Marginalized Sexualities

Gender equality is an essential part of Finnish self-understanding. The public discussion on equality does not, however, only focus on gender; it is also used to promote antiimmigration-minded, homophobic opinions. In the article, the co-existence of contradictory discourses on gender equality is interpreted as populist rhetoric. The articulations of gender equality in online debates on gender, sexuality, and immigration are analyzed. The main questions are: How is gender equality re-framed in anti-immigration-minded online debate? How are the notions of sexuality and gender fixed in order to oppose immigration? How are gender, sexuality, and immigration articulated intersectionally? The in…

Stoalaisella asenteella?

Vain muutos on pysyvää

Väkivalta koskee ja koskettaa

Brändätty maa : Suomi 19:llä vuosisadalla, Maabrändiraportti ja This Is Finland kansakunnan näyteikkunoina

Tervetullut folkloristin näkökulma verkkovihaan

Arvio Karin Sandellin väitöskirjasta Parasiter och bättre folk. Affekt, performans och performativitet i näthat mot det svenska i Finland. Åbo: Åbo Universitet. 198 s.

Kaikki kotona?

Tämä teksti on lyhennetty ja toimitettu versio Jyväskylässä 10.–13.8.2017 pidettyjen Kotiseutupäivien paneelista ”Kaikki kotona – keskustelua kodin, kotiseudun ja kuulumisen kokemuksista”. Paneelikeskustelun järjestivät Jyväskylän yliopiston musiikin, taiteen ja kulttuurin tutkimuksen laitos sekä tutkimushankkeet EUROHERIT ja Arts of Belonging. Puhetta johti tutkimuskoordinaattori Tarja Pääjoki (TP), ja paneelissa keskustelivat akatemiatutkija, dosentti Tuuli Lähdesmäki (TL), dosentti Tuija Saresma (TS) ja tutkijatohtori Antti Vallius (AV). nonPeerReviewed

What does gender matter? : ideas and thoughts about equality for discussion in secondary school

Poliittisten toimijoiden kokema vihapuhe sukupuolittuneena poliittisena väkivaltana

Artikkelissamme käsittelemme poliitikkoihin kohdistuvaa vihapuhetta sukupuolittuneena ilmiönä, johon liittyvät monenlaiset tunteet ja affektit. Vihapuhe vaikuttaa kohteisiinsa monin tavoin ja saa aikaan erilaisia tunteita ja tuntemuksia. Määrittelemme vihapuheen tietyn ryhmän todelliseen tai oletettuun ominaisuuteen kohdistuvaksi uhkaavaksi, halveksivaksi tai syrjiväksi puheeksi, joka vaikuttaa kohteisiinsa fyysisen väkivallan tavoin. Tarkastelemme vihapuhetta rajatusti politiikan toimijoihin kohdistuvana verbaalisena poliittisena väkivaltana. Määritelmä laajentaa poliittisen väkivallan käsitettä kattamaan symbolisen vahingoittamisen. Vihapuhe poliittisena väkivaltana perustuu kohteiden kuu…

Rajojen poetiikkaa ja politiikkaa : taiteellinen aktivismi reaktiona "pakolaiskriisiin"

Käsittelemme artikkelissa suomalaisten nykytaiteilijoiden reaktioita vuoden 2015 ”pakolaiskriisiin” taiteellisen aktivismin näkökulmasta. Analysoimme kolmea teosta, Lauri Ahtisen Elias-sarjakuvaromaania (2018), Minna Rainion ja Mark Robertsin lyhytelokuvaa They Came in Crowded Boats and Trains (2017) ja Riiko Sakkisen näyttelyä Rajat kiinni (2017). Tulkitsemme teoksia poeettisena aktivismina, jolla taiteilijat pyrkivät vaikuttamaan yleisöön taiteen omien esteettisin keinoin. Tarkastelemme teoksia sen keskustelun viitekehyksessä, jota on käyty taiteen ja median ristiriitaisesta roolista ”pakolaiskriisin” käsittelyssä, sekä osana keskustelua taiteellisesta aktivismista. Erittelemme taiteilijo…

Väkivaltafantasiat ja pelon politiikka : sukupuolitetun ja sukupuolittavan verkkovihapuheen luentaa

Performing ‘us’ and ‘other’ : Intersectional analyses of right-wing populist media

Finland and Sweden share the ideal of a Nordic welfare state, with gender equality as a central tenet. In both countries, right-wing populist parties have gained prominence in mainstream politics. Despite similar political agendas at the moment, these parties have different political histories, and different modes of expressing their anti-immigration pleas. In this comparative study, we examine how the distinction between ‘us’ and the ‘other’ is performed intersectionally in terms of gender, social class, ethnicity and ‘race’, and sexuality. For this purpose, we examine empirical material collected from the party newspapers of the Finns Party and the Sweden Democrats, because their content…

DocPoint: sisaruutta vuosikymmenten läpi

Gendered Violence Online : Hate Speech as an Intersection of Misogyny and Racism

Social media has been adopted by radical right populists and alt-right demagogues as a platform for circulating misogynous and racist hate speech and affectively mobilising supporters. This chapter examines hate speech as a form of gendered and racist violence, focusing on social media posts by two influential right-wing populist politicians: Jussi Halla-aho, the leader of the Finns Party, and Donald Trump, the president of the United States. It demonstrates how these politicians intertwine misogyny and racism in blog posts and tweets that target women in particular. Their affective online communication is interpreted as a new form of violence. This digitally mediated violence, although a r…

Naistutkijat netissä nyrkin ja hellan väliin

Emotive Strategies and Affective Tactics in The Islam Night Television Show

Maskulinistiblogin sukupuolimaisema feministidystopiana ja kolonialistisena pastoraalina

Mapping the Concept(s) of Belonging

Various epistemological changes – such as the linguistic, narrative, and cultural turns that have influenced humanistic and social scientific studies since the 1980s – have contributed to the increased academic interest in politics, discourses, processes, and practices of belonging. During the recent decades, the idea of belonging or notbelonging have been discussed and theorized in various fields with diverse parallel and/or overlapping conceptualizations. These include, for example, identity, placemaking, displacement, and their representational, intersectional, and fluid nature. In recent years, several scholars have aimed to discuss the topics framed by the above mentioned concepts and …

The Intersections of Sexuality and Religion in the Anti-Interculturalist Rhetoric in Finnish Internet Discussion on Muslim Homosexuals in Amsterdam

In recent decades, Europe has faced the rise of nationalist populist movements objecting to increased immigration, cultural pluralisation, and interculturalism in European societies. Public discussion on interculturalism have often focused on the encounters of – and the wrangles with – migrants and local people and their diverse values. The members of anti-immigrant movements commonly object to cultural pluralism and intercultural practices and foster ‘traditional’, ‘Western’, and ‘national’ values. The discourse influenced by conservative ideologies also often embraces traces of xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny. In this paper, we ask how and why interculturalism is opposed in populist …

Omaelämäkerran rajapinnoilla : kuolema ja kirjoitus

Omaelämäkertaa on alettu narratiivisen käänteen myötä tutkia monilla tieteenaloilla. Omaelämäkertatutkimuksesta on tullut tärkeä kulttuurintutkimuksenkin osa-alue. Se on rikas tutkimuskohde, sillä siinä kiteytyvät kysymykset esimerkiksi kokemuksesta, kielen performatiivisuudesta, subjektista, tekstuaalisuudesta ja toimijuudesta. Tässä kirjassa Tuija Saresma esittelee omaelämäkertatutkimuksen vaiheita, metodologiaa ja etiikkaa. Hän kehittelee dialogista ja empaattista omaelämäkertojen lukemisen tapaa. Kirjan empiirisenä lähtökohtana on taidekokemuksia kuvaavista omaelämäkerrallisista kirjoituksista tehty tutkimus. Teoreettisesti se pohjaa monitieteiseen omaelämäkertatutkimukseen, kulttuurint…

Vihapuhe : demokratian uhka, rangaistava teko vai melua tyhjästä?

The role of social media in the rise of right-wing populism in Finland

Right-wing populism is typically entangled with xenophobic nationalism and neo-conservatism, which often usher in racism and misogyny. In this chapter, the authors take Finland as a case study to examine the role of media technology in the rise of right-wing populism. They demonstrate the strengthening of the far-right ideology on and through social media from the beginning of 2010s. It focuses on the mediated construction of two entangled ideologies in the right-wing populist movement racism and misogyny. In early spring 2020, the debate about Turkey opening its EU border to refugees made Jussi Halla-aho eagerly participate in this discussion in the parliament and on Twitter now as the cha…

Performing the author/mother/merchant/wife: moving subject positions in Minna Canth's autobiography

Reading autobiography as a performative act enables for the analysis of processes involved in constructing the self. It provides a space for analysing the ways in which gender, nationality, and other social locations of the subject are negotiated. In this article, I read the famous Finnish nineteenth-century playwright and author Minna Canth’s concise autobiography, focusing on various locations of the autobiographical subject in this rather laconic matter-of-fact text. My reading follows current trends in feminist autobiographical theorising as well as feminist politics of reading. I strive to deconstruct the interpretation of autobiographies as dichotomously fixed texts. I suggest a more …

Spatial and bodily metaphors in narrating the experience of listening to sad music

Abstract. This study focuses on the a ffective experiences of listening to self - identified sad music. Previous studies have concentrated on the emotions induced by music by r ationalizing and labelling emotions. However, focusing on such categorization leaves the subjective experiences of the individual aside. The aim of this article is to broaden the methodology of studying music and emotion by analyzing the metaphorical langu age used in the narratives about the subjective experience of listening to music. A total of 373 participants answered to open - ended questions about the experiences of listening to sad music via an online - survey. The responses were then analyzed using syst emat…

Uses of the concept in contemporary research

The multiple futures of feminism

Feminism as a concept and as a movement tends to provoke ambivalent responses. Although gender equality is a commonly shared value, feminism remains hotly debated in Finland, and explicit anti-feminism often intertwines with homophobic, xenophobic, and racist currents. To resist reactionary mobilization, new generations of feminists are defining their feminism as intersectional. For them, analysing gender and gender-based subordination is not enough, but racism, homophobia and transphobia need to be tackled just as urgently. The possible futures of feminism, its utopias and dystopias, were the topic of a panel discussion at the annual Finnish gender studies conference organized by the Unive…

Halla-ahon ahdistus ja ironia : ulossulkeva suomalaisuus ja ahdas nationalismi Scripta-blogissa

Maisemassa : sukupuoli suomalaisuuden kuvastoissa

Maisemalla on merkittävä tehtävä kansallisuutta koskevien käsitysten luomisessa ja ylläpitämisessä. Mutta maisema ei ole vain paikka, vaan paikasta tulee maisema rajaamisen kautta. Rajaus ohjaa katseen maiseman reunoille, kehyksiin ja kehystämiseen. Se näyttää, kenen maisema on, kuka maiseman tekee ja mitä varten. Maiseman rajaaminen on valtaa. Maiseman käsite viittaa yhtäältä luonnonmaisemaan, toisaalta sen kuvalliseen esittämiseen. Monitieteisessä artikkelikokoelmassa Maisemassa – Sukupuoli suomalaisuuden kuvastoissa analysoidaan kansallisuuden kulttuurisia esityksiä rajattuina maisemina. Visuaalisen kulttuurin, kirjallisuuden, kulttuurimaantieteen ja sukupuolen tutkijat tarkastelevat art…

Miestenpäivästä naistenpäivän alla

Homing blogs as ambivalent spaces for feminine agency

This article discusses a form of lifestyle blogging where women blog about their homes and everyday lives. In these homing blogs, selfrepresentations are characteristically spatially demarcated within the private sphere of the home. As these repeated representations of women in their homes take place in the public space of the internet, homing blogs work towards naturalizing the home as a women’s sphere. Written and commented on mostly by other women, homing blogs represent a feminine form of self-expression and communication that functions as a discursive expression of ongoing social, economic, and cultural changes in affluent Western societies. In this article, Finnish versions of these h…

"Me" : solidaarisuus, polarisaatio ja poteroituminen

MOHSEN EMADI – A POET OF EXILE

"I’m from exile”. This is how a poet, a cosmopolitan, and a citizen of the world of poetry Mohsen Emadi describes himself. He writes poems on loss and displacement, charting his experiences of mobility. This essay is based on Emadi’s poems and bio­graphical interviews with the poet. Quotes from the interviews and fragments of his poems are combined with theoretical reflections on diaspora, nomadism, and exile by researchers such as Edward Said and Rogers Brubaker. Following Emadi, I take a critical look at the concept of diaspora and discuss mobility and exile both as a forced condition and as a choice. The experiences of both voluntary and coerced mobility are considered from the perspecti…

“Art as a Way to Life”: Bereavement and the Healing Power of Arts and Writing

Reading, writing, music, and fine arts are widely acknowledged to have therapeutic value to those bereaved. Narratives of coping with the help of arts are commonly told. Yet, the experiences of bereavement and the healing powers of arts and writing are rarely discussed and analyzed in social sciences. In this article, I search for a way to study the therapeutic power of arts and writing on a personal level. Using empathy as a metaphorical tool, I read an unpublished autobiography about a mother's grief and coping process through my own experiences of bereavement. I strive for emotional verisimilitude and apply a poetic form when citing the autobiography to highlight the evocative tone of t…

Antigender-liike, kristillisyys ja oikeistopopulismi : sukupuolen politiikkaa

Gender-käsitteen vastustaminen liittyy sukupuolen poliittiseen neuvotteluun. Kun mielipideilmasto vapautuu ja naisten ja seksuaalivähemmistöjen oikeuksien kirjo laajenee, liberaalien arvojen vastustajat kokevat olonsa uhatuksi ja tukeutuvat kireään moralismiin. nonPeerReviewed

Rajatut maisemat

Verkkoviha väkivaltana : vihapuhetutkijoiden näkökulmia

publishedVersion Non peer reviewed

Gender populism : three cases of Finns party actors' traditionalist anti-feminism

Gender has been marginalized in the study on populism (Mulinari & Neergard 2012; Akkerman 2015; de Lange & Mügge 2015). Ruth Wodak (2015) states that gendered discourses in the rhetoric of right-wing populist parties have been neglected and remain under-researched. Although we seem to be witnessing an upsurge in the focus on gender issues in research on populism (see e.g. the thematic issue of Patterns of Prejudice, ed. by Spierings et al. 2015), with especially the amount of analyses of the so-called gender gap in voting patterns increasing lately, the analysis of performing gender and a certain gender order in the wider political discourse is still mostly missing. In this chapter, I will …

Vihan sfäärit : valkoisten heteromiesten affektiivinen mobilisaatio sosiaalisessa mediassa

Miten affekti toimii ja saa asioita tapahtumaan? Kuinka affektien avulla mobilisoidaan ihmisiä ja kuinka niiden ympärille rakentuu yhteisöjä? Pyrin vastaamaan näihin kysymyksiin lukemalla sukupuoleen, seksuaalisuuteen ja ”rotuun” liittyviä sosiaalisen median keskusteluja Sara Ahmedin affektikäsitteen kautta. En kysy, mitä tunteet ovat, vaan mitä ne tekevät: miten ne ”kiertävät ruumiiden välillä, miten ne ’liimautuvat kiinni’ ja myös liikkuvat”. Lähestyn manosfääriksi nimettyä sukupuolta ja erityisesti maskuliinisuutta käsittelevien blogien ja nettisivustojen verkostoa tunneyhteisönä, joka rakentuu tiettyjä ideologisia sisältöjä ja diskursiivisia käytäntöjä kierrättämällä. Lähestymistavassan…

Alma materin isoveli valvoo

"""Fluidity and flexibility of """"belonging"""": Uses of the concept in contemporary research"""

Studies framing “belonging” as a key focus and a central concept of research have increased significantly in the 2000s. This article explores the dimensions of belonging as a scholarly concept. The investigation is based on a qualitative content analysis of articles published in academic journals covering a large number of different disciplines. The article poses and answers the following research questions: How is belonging understood and used in contemporary research? What added value does the concept bring to scholarly discussions? In the analysis, five topoi of conceptualizing belonging – spatiality, intersectionality, multiplicity, materiality, and non-belonging – were identified. Afte…

Performing Disgust : Affective Intersections of Misogyny, Racism, and Homophobia in Radical-Right Online Discussion

Social media is an increasingly important tool for the dissemination of misogynistic, xenophobic, and nationalist radical-right messages. As injurious modes of communication spread on the internet and trickle into societal discussions, polarizing communication also becomes normalized in traditional media and everyday discussions. In this chapter, we trace how disgust becomes politicized in radical-right populist rhetoric online. The radical right movement’s affective discourse is used to arouse strong emotions in the followers. We are interested in how repulsion toward women, typical of texts published in many online environments, affectively intersects with repulsion towards (other) gender…