- Faculty of Social Sciences
33014 University of Tampere
Finland
- Stockholm University, Cinema Studies, Faculty MemberTampere University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty Memberadd
- Media Scholar and Professor of Gender Studies Professor at School of History, Culture and Arts Studies, University of Turku, Finland.edit
In this paper, we present insights into how a research process facilitating fluent interdisciplinary collaboration was developed for a project joining together 1) computer scientists, 2) linguists and 3) media scholars. In lieu of... more
In this paper, we present insights into how a research process facilitating fluent interdisciplinary collaboration was developed for a project joining together 1) computer scientists, 2) linguists and 3) media scholars. In lieu of describing the actual results from our analyses in the project, we instead describe our approach, and how it led into a versatile general template for an iterative and discursive approach to digital humanities research, which moves toward questions of interest both fast, as well as with high capability to truly capture the phenomena from the viewpoints of interest.
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This article explores the possibilities and constraints for feminist knowledge production and diffusion, and its influence over policy making and public debate in the context of austerity and neoliberal governance. By analysing the... more
This article explores the possibilities and constraints for feminist knowledge production and diffusion, and its influence over policy making and public debate in the context of austerity and neoliberal governance. By analysing the process in which a group of Finnish academic feminists used their expert position to influence government policy in 2015–2017, the article illustrates the strategies they adopted to engage in political debates and how they negotiated the new political landscape. The research material was derived from two years of action research and participant observation and is considered through the theoretical lens of governance feminism. The article makes a distinctive contribution to extant theories of governance feminism, by drawing upon theories of affects and ambivalence as a complement to governance feminism's focus on discourses and co‐optation. We coin the term affective virtuosity to highlight the importance of affect in feminist knowledge production and diffusion, and in shaping the various perspectives available to feminist scholars in encounters with politicians and policymakers.
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In present-day public discussions, questions of power, agency, and the media are debated more intensely than ever as issues of injury or empowerment. Vulnerability has emerged as a key concept circulating in these discussions and their... more
In present-day public discussions, questions of power, agency, and the media are debated more intensely than ever as issues of injury or empowerment. Vulnerability has emerged as a key concept circulating in these discussions and their academic analyses. The #MeToo campaign, as well as its extensions like #TimesUp and versions in various languages across the globe, has been taken up as a key example of these tendencies, showing how the public articulation of experiences of injury, trauma, and hurt is now turning into a powerful worldwide movement. A collective of voices testifying to a persistent, repetitive vulnerability and injury caused by sexual harassment, assault, and abuse has, perhaps paradoxically, become praised as a feminist movement for empowerment, justice, and change, and a societal force to be reckoned with. At the same time, the campaign has raised several questions: what are the limits of feminist politics that draws first and foremost on a shared public victimhood, or survivorship? How much of this vulnerability is shared, and by whom? (...)
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Released over a year between August 2012 and August 2013, Jonas Gardell’s trilogy of novels and a three-part TV drama Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves [Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar], scripted by Gardell and directed by Simon... more
Released over a year between August 2012 and August 2013, Jonas Gardell’s trilogy of novels and a three-part TV drama Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves [Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar], scripted by Gardell and directed by Simon Kaijser, had immense success in Sweden. For the first time in the Swedish mainstream public sphere, the trauma of HIV/AIDS was addressed. Beyond addressing a trauma within gay male culture, Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves simultaneously engaged in a politics of nation. While enabling mourning work for gay audiences, it also attempted to rewrite the national history by projecting the nation’s near past of the 1980s as an age of homophobia and intolerance against the contemporary, official self-image of Sweden as ‘gay-friendly’ (Swedish Institute, 2018). In other words, Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves resignified vulnerability, the injury of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on gay men, as a productive resource for the national self-image, thus enabling the integration of gay history into the ‘national symbolic’ (Berlant, 1991). While issuing a fierce accusation of homophobia against past Swedish society, through processes of resignification and transference, Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves reframed the HIV/AIDS-stricken bodies as objects of compassion, restoring the self-image of Sweden as a caring nation – a welfare state and folkhem, a people’s home.
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Koivunen, Anu (2018) "Bortom nationella medieoffentligheter? Mediepolitik och demokratins framtid” in H. Meinander, P. Karonen & K. Östberg (Eds.) Demokratins drivkrafter: Kontext och särdrag i Finlands och Sveriges demokratier, 1890-2020. (Helsingfors: Svenska Litteratursällskapet 2018), 359–390.more
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In his study of nationalism, Benedict Anderson famously identified a notion of simultaneity across “homogeneous, empty time” as the temporal structure underpinning nationness as “imagined community.” Since the 18th century, Anderson... more
In his study of nationalism, Benedict Anderson famously identified a notion of simultaneity across “homogeneous, empty time” as the temporal structure underpinning nationness as “imagined community.” Since the 18th century, Anderson argued, time was spatialized as newspapers and novels were the prime cultural forms of imagining a community across space. In the era of televisual nation-building, another kind of temporality has emerged as a form for thinking about and feeling the nation. Archival aesthetics, it is argued, is a mode of affective historiography that mobilizes a double temporality: While constructing chronologies in its remixing of archive footage, reproducing conventional narratives of epochs and events, it also engenders, via reappropriations of popular music and cinema, a transhistorical, even mythical notion of the nation as a community of feeling across time. Through a discussion of Finnish TV documentaries by Peter von Bagh, this article returns to Homi K. Bhabha’s theorizing of the pedagogical and the performative as the two, intertwined modes of narrating the nation.
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In his films of the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Jörn Donner, a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, critic and film director, employed his body and popular media image as a contemporary celebrity for narrative and marketing purposes.... more
In his films of the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Jörn Donner, a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, critic and film director, employed his body and popular media image as a contemporary celebrity for narrative and marketing purposes. Focusing on the film Naisenkuvia/Portraits of Women (1970), a metanarrative about the alliance of art cinema and pornography in the 1960s and a parody of Donner’s public persona, this article investigates Donner’s ‘authoring practices’ and gestures of authorial ‘self-projection’ amidst the mediatized sexual revolution of the 1960s. Portraits of Women reveals Donner's appropriation and analysis of a newly sexualized public sphere, but the film also reads as a crisis point. While capitalizing on his public persona by casting himself as the male lead, Donner was forced to acknowledge that self-fashioning in the sphere of public sex escapes authorial control.
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SwePub titelinformation: Soulfulness, Sichtbarkeit and the sexual politics of national cinema.
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Leeuw, de, Sonja; Dhoest, Alexander; Gutiérrez Lozano, Juan Francisco; Heinderyckx, François; Koivunen, Anu; Medhurst, Jamie-TV nations or global medium? European television between national institution and window on the world-In: A... more
Leeuw, de, Sonja; Dhoest, Alexander; Gutiérrez Lozano, Juan Francisco; Heinderyckx, François; Koivunen, Anu; Medhurst, Jamie-TV nations or global medium? European television between national institution and window on the world-In: A European television ...
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HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki - Terms and User Rights By using HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki you are bound by the following Terms & Conditions. Please read them carefully.... more
HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki - Terms and User Rights By using HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki you are bound by the following Terms & Conditions. Please read them carefully. I have read and I understand the following ...
... In his 'Digital dilemmas: change and continuity in the information society', Golding focused on several contradictions in the social ... Organized by Jose Arroyo, Julianne Pidduck and Richard... more
... In his 'Digital dilemmas: change and continuity in the information society', Golding focused on several contradictions in the social ... Organized by Jose Arroyo, Julianne Pidduck and Richard Dyer, the Deviant Imaging conference brought together a diverse selection of papers ...
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HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki - Terms and User Rights By using HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki you are bound by the following Terms & Conditions. Please read them carefully. I... more
HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki - Terms and User Rights By using HELDA - The Digital Repository of University of Helsinki you are bound by the following Terms & Conditions. Please read them carefully. I have read and I understand the following ...
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Hoivaava nainen: oppihistoriallinen tarina. Anu Koivunen Naistutkimus 4:9898, 73-82, 1998.
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Suomalaisuus ja muita sitoumuksia. Anu Koivunen Naistutkimus-Kvinnoforskning 11, 3-23, 1998.
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The chapter analyses the shifting relationship between feminist politics and the state in Finland in the 2010s, with the aim of providing new insights into this relationship in a changing political context. The chapter focuses on a... more
The chapter analyses the shifting relationship between feminist politics and the state in Finland in the 2010s, with the aim of providing new insights into this relationship in a changing political context. The chapter focuses on a particular form of neoliberal and managerial governance that aims to make government decision-making processes more strategic by narrowing down policy objectives and aligning them explicitly with fiscal objectives that have moved the Finnish welfare state in the direction of becoming a strategic state, in which economic imperatives overrule other political concerns. The chapter asks: (i) How do different feminist actors operate in the strategic state? and (ii) How are gender issues politicised in the strategic state by different feminist actors? The chapter approaches these questions through three different conceptualisations of feminist politics in Finland, namely, the idea of the velvet triangle, governance feminism, and intersectional feminism. The chapter shows how the network model of the velvet triangle is challenged in the context of the strategic state, while both governance feminism and intersectional feminism are strengthened.
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In this article, we introduce a linguistic approach to studying affectivity as a fundamental feature of news journalism. By reconceptualising affectivity beyond emotive storytelling, intentional stance-taking or evaluative expression, we... more
In this article, we introduce a linguistic approach to studying affectivity as a fundamental feature of news journalism. By reconceptualising affectivity beyond emotive storytelling, intentional stance-taking or evaluative expression, we propose a methodology that highlights how conventions related to mediating, modulating and managing affectivity permeate journalistic genres. Drawing from conversation analysis (Goffman, 1961), Bakhtinian theory of language as dialogical (Volosinov, 1995) and Wetherell’s (2012) notion of affective meaning-making, we investigate how selected linguistic forms and structures – namely evidential and epistemic modals and lexical items signalling affective intensity (such as emotive and evaluative words and metaphorical expressions) – participate in affective meaning-making in news journalism. A scalable computational methodology is introduced to study multiple linguistic structures in conjunction. In investigating a case study – the news reporting and commentary on a highly charged, year-long political conflict between the right-wing conservative government and the trade unions in Finland (2015–2016) – the approach allows a focus on the ways in which affectivity operates in journalistic texts in response to both generic expectations of the audience and journalistic conventions. Our findings include identification of the intertwining of strategic rituals of objectivity and emotionality (Tuchman 1972, Wahl-Jorgensen 1993a, 1993b), recognition of metaphoricity as a key source of affectivity and detection of different news article types having their own conventions for managing affectivity. We also observe a connection between emotive and evaluative words and the grammatical constructions used to express degrees of certainty, which suggests these modal constructions play an important part in how affectivity informs journalistic texts.
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Artikkelissa tarkastellaan Juha Sipilän (kesk.) hallituksen kilpailukykysopimusprosessia (2015–2016) koskevaa journalismia kielessä esiintyvien metaforien kautta. Tutkimuksemme etenee laskennallisten menetelmien avulla käsitellystä... more
Artikkelissa tarkastellaan Juha Sipilän (kesk.) hallituksen kilpailukykysopimusprosessia (2015–2016) koskevaa journalismia kielessä esiintyvien metaforien kautta. Tutkimuksemme etenee laskennallisten menetelmien avulla käsitellystä laajasta aineistosta (HS, YLE, STT ja Iltalehti) rajatumman aineiston laadulliseen lähilukuun. Tutkimus käsittelee sitä, millaisena kilpailukykysopimukseen liittyvä poliittinen prosessi esitettiin kielessä esiintyvien metaforisten ilmausten kautta. Vastaamme kahteen tutkimuskysymykseen: Miten kilpailukykysopimustapausta merkityksellistetään journalismissa sekä mitä metaforilla tehdään journalismin kielessä. Näkökulmanamme on metaforien yhdistäminen affektiivisuuden käsitteeseen, joka ymmärretään tässä tutkimuksessa laajasti kielen kommunikatiivisena ja dialogisena ulottuvuutena. Metaforisessa kielessä on tällöin kyse affektiivisesta merkityksellistämisestä, minkä kautta ohjataan lukijan huomiota, säädellään etäisyyttä ja läheisyyttä suhteessa lukijoihin sekä rakennetaan lukijasuhdetta. Metaforat saavat siis journalismissa niin argumentaatioon kuin lukijasuhteen rakentamiseenkin liittyviä tehtäviä. Kilpailukykysopimusta jäsennettiin journalismissa erityisesti kolmen metaforamaailman, matkan, draaman ja sodan kautta. Matkan ja liikkeen metaforan kautta kuvattiin erityisesti poliittisia prosesseja sekä talouden liikkeitä; matkametafora tuottaa käsitystä politiikasta strategisena hallintona ja hallintana, jossa kansalaisten ja lukijoiden rooli on rajattu. Sodan maailmaan liittyvät voimakkaat metaforat kuvasivat politiikkaa konflikteina ja vastakkaisten pyrkimysten yhteentörmäyksinä. Draaman maailmaan liittyvillä metaforilla taas otettiin etäisyyttä politiikan toimijoihin ja kutsuttiin lukijoita seuraamaan politiikkaa etäältä, yhdessä sitä arvioivan journalismin kertojan kanssa.
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This introductory chapter introduces the main questions addressed in the book The Power of Vulnerability, and thoroughly accounts for the concept of vulnerability, its various theoretical legacies and uses in feminist, anti-racist and... more
This introductory chapter introduces the main questions addressed in the book The Power of Vulnerability, and thoroughly accounts for the concept of vulnerability, its various theoretical legacies and uses in feminist, anti-racist and queer scholarship, and key role in present day discussions about power, agency, and the media. Vulnerability is addressed both as a concept and as a political language. The authors highlight four aspects of how this language operates: as a human rights discourse, as a language easily appropriated by dominant groups, as a contested language invoking long-running debates in queer, feminist, and anti-racist media cultures, and as a language translated into cultural policymaking. The #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter campaigns exemplify how the public articulation of experiences of injury, trauma, and hurt can turn into powerful movements. However, in neo-liberal media culture, vulnerability operates as a political language not only for disadvantaged, but also for privileged groups. Claims of vulnerability can translate to claims to agency and voice, but these claims can have completely oppositional political consequences, depending on who is making them. Drawing from Lauren Berlant and Judith Butler, the chapter sheds light on this and other paradoxes that the concept of vulnerability evokes, and asks: what does the language of vulnerability do?
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The Nordic Model is the 20th-century Scandinavian recipe for combining stable democracies, individual freedom, economic growth and comprehensive systems for social security. But what happens when Sweden and Finland – two countries topping... more
The Nordic Model is the 20th-century Scandinavian recipe for combining stable democracies, individual freedom, economic growth and comprehensive systems for social security. But what happens when Sweden and Finland – two countries topping global indexes for competitiveness, productivity, growth, quality of life, prosperity, and equality – start doubting themselves and their future? Is the Nordic Model at a crossroads?
Historically, consensus, continuity, social cohesion, and broad social trust have been hailed as key components for the success and for the self-images of Sweden and Finland. In the contemporary, however, political debates in both countries are increasingly focused on risks, threats, and worry. Social disintegration, political polarization, geopolitical anxieties, and threat of terrorism are often dominant themes. This book focuses on what appears to be a paradox: countries with low income differences, high faith in social institutions, and relatively high cultural homogeneity becoming fixated on the fear of polarization, disintegration, and diminished social trust. Unpacking the presentist discourse of "worry" and a sense of interregnum at the face of geopolitical tensions, digitalization, and globalization, as well as challenges to democracy, the chapters take steps back in time and explore the current conjecture through the eyes of historians and social scientists, addressing key aspects of and challenges to both the contemporary and future Nordic Model. In addition, the functioning and efficacy of the participatory democracy and current protocols of decision-making are debated.
Historically, consensus, continuity, social cohesion, and broad social trust have been hailed as key components for the success and for the self-images of Sweden and Finland. In the contemporary, however, political debates in both countries are increasingly focused on risks, threats, and worry. Social disintegration, political polarization, geopolitical anxieties, and threat of terrorism are often dominant themes. This book focuses on what appears to be a paradox: countries with low income differences, high faith in social institutions, and relatively high cultural homogeneity becoming fixated on the fear of polarization, disintegration, and diminished social trust. Unpacking the presentist discourse of "worry" and a sense of interregnum at the face of geopolitical tensions, digitalization, and globalization, as well as challenges to democracy, the chapters take steps back in time and explore the current conjecture through the eyes of historians and social scientists, addressing key aspects of and challenges to both the contemporary and future Nordic Model. In addition, the functioning and efficacy of the participatory democracy and current protocols of decision-making are debated.
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Films are integral to national imagination. Promotional publicity markets “domestic films” not only as entertaining, exciting, or moving, but also as topical and relevant in different ways. Reviewers assess new films with reference to... more
Films are integral to national imagination. Promotional publicity markets “domestic films” not only as entertaining, exciting, or moving, but also as topical and relevant in different ways. Reviewers assess new films with reference to other films and cultural products as well as social and political issues. Through such interpretive framings by contemporaries and later generations, popular cinema is embedded both in national imagination and endless intertextual and intermedial frameworks. Moreover, films themselves become signs to be cited and recycled as illustrations of cultural, social, and political history as well as national mentality. In the age of television, “old films” continue to live as history and memory. In Performative Histories, Foundational Fictions, Anu Koivunen analyzes the historicity as well as the intertextuality and intermediality of film reception by focusing on a cycle of Finnish family melodrama and its key role in thinking about gender, sexuality, nation, and history. Close-reading posters, advertisements, publicity-stills, trailers, review journalism, and critical commentary, she demonstrates how The Women of Niskavuori (1938 and 1958), Loviisa (1946), Heta Niskavuori (1952), Aarne Niskavuori (1954), Niskavuori Fights (1957), and Niskavuori (1984) have operated as sites for imagining “our agrarian past”, our Heimat and heritage as well as “the strong Finnish woman” or “the weak man in crisis”. Based on extensive empirical research, Koivunen argues that the Niskavuori films have mobilized readings in terms of history and memory, feminist nationalism and men’s movement, left-wing allegories and right-wing morality as well as realism and melodrama. Through processes of citation, repetition, and re-cycling the films have acquired not only a heterogeneous and contradictory interpretive legacy, but also an affective force.