The Centre for Sociology of Democracy studies democracy in modern societies. Our projects deal with democracy from different perspectives and with different methods.
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Recent News & Blog Posts
In their article, Tuukka Ylä-Anttila, Veikko Eranti and Anna Kukkonen examine media debates on climate change in India and the United States.
A mixed-methods study by Tuukka Ylä-Anttila, Veikko Eranti and Sam Hardwick investigates politics on Overboard, a Finnish imageboard.
In his article, Tuukka Ylä-Anttila assesses the significance of social media for the Finns Party and the related anti-immigration movement from 2007 to the present day, in light of theories on the relationship of populism and social media.
The Educação, Sociedade & Culturas journal (ESC – Education, Society and Cultures) has released a call for papers for a special issue to be published in 2022, “Education and Climate Activism: Youth democratic practices and imaginations towards a common world” with guest editors Carla Malafaia (ImagiDem, University of Porto), Maria Fernandes-Jesus (University of Sussex) and Eeva Luhtakallio (ImagiDem, University of Helsinki).
The book is the result of a co-writing process between Karine Clement of ImagiDem and dozens of yellow vests from the roundabout of Saint-Avold, where she has conducted her fieldwork since November 2018.
Demokratia ei ole yksilölaji, vaikka kaikilla äänestäjillä onkin vain yksi ääni. Yhdysvaltain presidentinvaalien tulokseen iso vaikutus oli myös kansalaistoiminnalla, kuten Black Lives Matter -mielenosoituksilla ja vapaaehtoisilla, jotka auttoivat ihmisiä rekisteröitymään äänestäjiksi.
ImagiDem’s PI Professor Eeva Luhtakallio discussed images as tools of political participation and topical environmental activism in Finland in YLE Politiikkaradio podcast.
On 24 September 2020 ImagiDem’s kick-off seminar discussed how the increasing emphasis on visual forms of communication affects young people’s societal participation and the way in which they construct democracy. The seminar featured short presentations of visual participation from three European countries: France, Finland and Portugal. The event was streamed online.
The planned Masterclass on visual analysis at the University of Helsinki has been postponed.
POSTPONED: Visual participation of young Europeans – snapshots from France, Finland and Portugal
The event has been postponed. The new date and venue will be announced later.
The event has been postponed. The new event date will be announced as soon as possible.
Join us for a three-hour seminar discussing how the increasing emphasis on visual forms of communication affects young people’s societal participation and the way in which they construct democracy. The seminar features a keynote lecture by Associate Professor Katrin Tiidenberg (Tallinn University), short presentations of visual participation from three European countries: France, Finland and Portugal, as well as comments by Senior Lecturer Leena-Maija Rossi (University of Helsinki).
Provisional programme:
15.00 Welcome address and ImagiDem presentation: Professor Eeva Luhtakallio (University of Helsinki)
15.30 Keynote: Associate professor Katrin Tiidenberg (Tallinn University): Curation, creation and community – making sense of visual social media
Discussion
16.30 Coffee
16.45 Snapshots from France, Portugal and Finland
Dr. Karine Clément (CNRS, Paris): What do we mean by “visual” and “participation” when we talk about visual participation? Reflections from the case of the Yellow Vests in France.
Dr. Carla Malafaia (University of Porto): The visual dimension of participation among climate activists in Portugal: an ethnography with student strikers and civil disobedience groups
Dr. Taina Meriluoto (University of Helsinki): Selfiesteem – reconstructing oneself on- and offline
17.30 Comments by Leena-Maija Rossi (University of Helsinki) and discussion
The seminar is part of the launching event of professor Eeva Luhtakallio’s ERC-project Imagi(ni)ng Democracy: European youth becoming citizens by visual participation, which studies visual participation both online and offline. The project analyses images and memes posted on social media, and follows young people’s visual ways of participation as part of their everyday actions with the tools of visual ethnography and computational big data mining and analysis.
The seminar is free of charge and no pre-registration is required.
The actions of Extinction Rebellion Finland showcase new visual forms of politicisation
Images play an increasingly large role in social participation. Protests, demands and even entire processes of politicisation may take a purely visual form. In this text, we analyse paired photographs that went viral immediately after the civil disobedience actions of Extinction Rebellion Finland as a form of politicisation. Images are a powerful means of communication – indeed, it is revealing that the social commentary in Finland has revolved intensely around a handful of smartphone snapshots.