Skip to main content

About me

I am interested in the global system, especially in the global travel of ideas and in governance through epistemic means both in national and global contexts. I have also had a long-term interest in social research methodology, especially qualitative research.

Responsibilities

I am professor of sociology and research director of the Tampere Centre for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI). Within TaSTI, I lead the Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology (TCuPS), an energetic group of scholars who share my interest in world society, national policymaking, global circulation of ideas, epistemic governance, and sociology of knowledge.

Fields of expertise

My areas of specialization are global studies, social and cultural theory, and methodology of social research.

Main positions of trust

Chair of the board of the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies

Research unit

Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology (TCuPS)

Research fields

See more about my research interests in our research team's home page: Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology (TCuPS) 

Research career

2016-2020 Academy of Finland, Epistemic capital in the synchronization of national policies; large scale research project 

2014-2018 Epistemic governance in policymaking; large scale research project  

2014-2016 Kone Foundation: Synchronization of national policies; small scale research project 

2009-2013 Academy of Finland, The Moderns; large scale research project 

2009-2012 Academy of Finland, Domestication of Ubiquitous Communication 

2006-2009 Academy of Finland, Knowledge Production, Power, and Global Social Change 

2000-2004 Tekes, Alma Media & Stora Enso, Media and Everyday Life 

2001-2002 Academy of Finland, The Cultural Unconscious 

1996-2002 Academy of Finland, The Habitus Research Project 

1997-1999 Sitra, National Culture and Identity; part of Sitra’s Globalization, Welfare and Employment project 

Selected publications

Recent select publications 

Ulybina, Olga, Laia Pi Ferrer & Pertti Alasuutari: “Intergovernmental organizations in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic: Organizational behaviour in crises and under uncertainty”. International Sociology 37(4), 2022, 415–438. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/02685809221094687

Qadir, Ali & Pertti Alasuutari: ”The Discursive Side of Sociological Institutionalism in the Study of Religion”. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 2022: 1-23, DOI https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-bja10075

Alasuutari, Pertti & Ali Qadir: Epistemic Governance: Social change in the modern world . London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2019. 

Alasuutari, Pertti & Valtteri Vähä-Savo: Owning worldwide principles: The case of American exceptionalism. Social Science Information 57 (4), 2018, 533–552. 

Pi Ferrer, Laia, Pertti Alasuutari & Leena Tervonen-Gonçalves: Looking at others in national policy-making: the construction of reference groups in Portugal and Spain from 2008 to 2013. European Politics and Society 20 (3), 2018, 333–347. 

Alasuutari, Pertti, Marjaana Rautalin & Jukka Tyrkkö: The rise of the idea of model in policymaking: The case of the British parliament, 1803–2005. European Journal of Sociology 59 (3), 2018, 341-363. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: Authority as epistemic capital. Journal of Political Power 11 (2), 2018, 165-190. 

Wang, Li & Pertti Alasuutari: Co-construction of the tourist experience in social networking sites: Two forms of authenticity intertwined. Tourist Studies 17 (4), 2017, 388–405. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: The Synchronization of National Policies: Ethnography of the Global Tribe of Moderns. London: Routledge 2016. 

Alasuutari, Pertti & Ali Qadir: Imageries of the social world in epistemic governance. International Sociology 31 (6), 2016, 633-652. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: The Discursive Side of New Institutionalism. Cultural Sociology 9 (2) 2015, 162–184. 

Alasuutari, Pertti: Following the Example of Other Countries? Policy Analysis of New Legislation in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 16 (3) 2014, 266-279. 

Alasuutari, Pertti and Ali Qadir: Epistemic governance: an approach to the politics of policy-making. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology 1, 2014, 67–84.