Pertti Alasuutari
Academy Professor
E-mail: pertti.alasuutari@uta.fi
telephone: +35850-4211053
Pertti Alasuutari is interested in the cultural aspects of social life
and especially in their links to power and politics. His areas of specialization
are everyday life and identity construction, media reception and audiences,
cultural dimensions of globalization, social and cultural theory, and
methodology of social research.
Research Interests:
In Alasuutari's scholarly work, empirically driven research approach
is combined with theory-building that serves the understanding of the
human reality. The ethnographic approach of his earlier production (e.g.
Desire and
Craving: A Cultural Theory of Alcoholism, SUNY Press 1992) has
during the 1990s changed into a methodology that makes use of the analysis
of public discourses, but common to all his works is an attempt to understand
the cultural processes of contemporary society. His current research projects
deal with the harmonization of global social change and with the domestication
of ubiquitous communication.
Alasuutari's interest in social research methodology, especially qualitative
research can be seen in many of his articles and textbooks (e.g. Researching
Culture: Qualitative Method and Cultural Studies, Sage 1995; An
Invitation to Social Research, Sage 1998). He is also interested
in social and cultural theory, which can be seen in his latest book, Social
Theory and Human Reality (Sage 2004).
Alasuutari is founding and current editor of the European
Journal of Cultural Studies and the first president of the international
Association for Cultural Studies .
Recent publications:
Alasuutari, Pertti: Spreading Global Models and Enhancing Banal Localism: The Case of Local Government Cultural Policy Development.
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2011, DOI:10.1080/10286632.2011.625418.
Alasuutari, Pertti: Modernization
as a Tacit Concept Used in Governance. Journal of Political Power,
4, No. 2, 2011, 217-235.
Alasuutari, Pertti: The
Governmentality of Consultancy and Competition: The Influence of the OECD.
In: Germán Solinís and Nicolas Baya-Laffite (eds.): Mapping
out the Research-Policy Matrix: Highlights from the First International
Forum on the Social Science-Policy Nexus. Paris: UNESCO Publishing 2011,
147-165.
Alasuutari, Pertti: The
Rise and Relevance of Qualitative Research. International Journal
of Social Research Methodology, 13, No. 2, 2010, 139-155.
Alasuutari, Pertti: The
Domestication of Worldwide Policy Models. Ethnologia Europaea 39,
No. 1, 2009, 66-71.
Rautalin, Marjaana and Pertti Alasuutari: The
uses of the national PISA results by Finnish officials in central government.
Journal of Education Policy, 24, No 5, 2009, 539-556.
Alasuutari, Pertti and Maarit Alasuutari: Narration
and Ritual Formation of Diasporic Identity: The Case of Second Generation
Karelian Evacuees. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power,
16, Issue 3, 2009, 321-341.
Alasuutari, Pertti and Ari Rasimus: Use
of the OECD in Justifying Policy Reforms: The Case of Finland. Journal
of Power 2, No 1, 2009, 89-109.
Alasuutari, Pertti: Social
Theory and Human Reality. London, Sage 2004.
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