The Role of Institutions in the Public Making of Religion in Finland
The project aims to study the forms of relationship between religious and secular institutions in the public making of religion in Finnish post-war society (1946-2006). The focus will be on four institutions that represent, remake and authorize social categorizations in the Finnish society: 1) the parliament, 2) the media, 3) the diocese and bishop-institution of the Evangelical-Lutheran and Orthodox churches, 4) the presidential institution. The key task is to understand and explain the role that institutions play in the making of religion. Regardless of the widely spread understanding of religion as a private matter in the contemporary world, the project argues for the view that the abstract notion of religion is as much a public issue in post-industrial or post-traditional society as it was in traditional society based on agrarian values. Although locations of religion have changed, the public discourse is pregnant with representations of religion. The project will show how, why and in what ways religion has been and still is an important and continuing domain in the public sphere in Finland. The principal outcome will be the new understanding of Finnish society in which religion is located in its various representations and discursive transformations within the domain of the public by focussing on significant institutions and wide range of empirical material produced by them.
Empirical data for research will be collected from juridical documents and parliament discussions, newspapers, public documents produced by diocese and bishop-institutions and official speeches presented by the former President of Finland, Urho Kekkonen. Methods, theoretical insights, analytical tools and conceptual frameworks that are utilised in all of the studies in the project are based on qualitative research methodology and drawn from the scholarly fields of comparative religion, sociology, communication and cultural studies. The project involves postgraduate students and researchers from the University of Turku, Department of Comparative Religion. Advisory board for the project consists of highly competent scholars of religion, folklore, sociology, communication and cultural studies both in Finland and abroad. The project will produce four monographs, several articles in national and international refereed journals as well as an overarching book on the public making of religion with the members of national and international advisory board. The board will get together for management meetings and seminars annually. The results of the project will be policy-relevant not only academically, but also for the Finnish society at large in respect to issues concerning the role that religion plays in the public sphere.
Scientific and practical director: Professor Veikko Anttonen
Researchers: Teemu Taira & Tiina Mahlamäki
Ph.D students: Maria Malte & Kalle Toivo