Faculty of Social Sciences

The Faculty of Social Sciences brings together research on society and health in a new way, and its contribution helps to solve different welfare challenges. The Faculty’s internationally high level, multidisciplinary know-how ranges from understanding the long processes of social change to topical questions on the structure of society, institutions and everyday life.

The establishment of this new Faculty – one with wide-ranging know-how – will help answer some of the core challenges that our changing society will face in the coming decades. In the field of research on society and health, the Faculty produces topical and critical research that has independent value in answering social problems. While acknowledging that strong academic disciplines are the cornerstone of research, the Faculty’s new strengths are concentrated in areas of multidisciplinary focus that extend beyond traditional boundaries. The new Faculty’s strong research themes cover a wide range of fields:

• Social cognition and interaction (HIP-Lab)
• Gender and body
• Migration, multiculturalism
• Childhood, youth and family research (PERLA)
• Ageing and the health and functional ability of the older adults (GEREC)
• Working life, well-being at work and occupational health (WRC)
• Welfare services
• Causes of cancer, reducing the causes and effects of the disease
• Cultures of politics and governance (TaSTI)
• Science, technology and innovations (Emerging Technologies Lab, TaSTI)
• Violence, conflicts and peaceful change (TAPRI)
• Social theory
• Social history (HEX, Trivium)

Faculty of Social Sciences conducts topical and critical research on society and culture. The research is carried out in research centres and the following Faculty’s disciplines and their joint projects:

History, Philosophy and Literary Studies

• History
• Philosophy
• Literary Studies

Welfare Sciences

• Logopedics
• Psychology
• Social Work
• Vocology

Health Sciences

• Biostatistics
• Epidemiology
• Gerontology
• Global Health, Work, and Environment
• Health and Wellbeing Systems
• Health Promotion
• Nursing Science

Social Research

• Criminology and Criminal Policy
• Gender Studies
• Peace Research (TAPRI)
• Social Anthropology
• Social Policy
• Social Psychology
• Sociology
• Youth Work and Youth Research

Faculty of Social Sciences has several research centres funded by different external actors (foundations, organisations, the Academy of Finland, TEKES etc.).

Centres of Excellence

Everyday Affordances of Nationalism within the RCF Centre of Excellence in Nationalism Research in the Humanities (NARS, 2026–2033). To historicize nationalism effectively requires not only its examination in the context of belligerence, but also a focus on unseen and unacknowledged nationalisms, national feelings, and their impacts. The research group examines how the everyday shaped, negotiated, legitimized, and challenged nationalisms of the 20th century. Coordinated by the Finnish Literature Society.

Suffering and Meliorism in Literature and the Philosophy of Literature within the RCF Centre of Excellence in Meliorist Philosophy of Suffering (MePhiS, 2026–2033). The research group investigates literature and the philosophy of literature as routes toward a meliorist philosophy of suffering. With a strong literary–philosophical orientation, we take seriously the idea that literary works can articulate philosophical and ethical issues and shape how people experience, express, and manage suffering. Coordinated by University of Helsinki.  

Academy Professor 

The Verses of Learning. Epideixis and the Cultural Stories of Nature at Early Modern Universities (VERSITAS). This research project led by Academy Professor Sari Kivistö, examines the significance of poetry and rhetoric in the history of the natural sciences at early modern universities. 

Research Centres

Center for Global Public Health Research and Training is an interdisciplinary center for research, training, policy, and advocacy to prevent disease, improve population health and well-being, and reduce health disparities, particularly in resource-poor settings. 

Emerging Technologies Lab (ETL) – a research center analyzing human behavior in evolving technological environments

Gerontology Research Center, GEREC is a collaborative effort in aging research jointly run by the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Tampere,

HEX - Centre for the History of Experience. What can we know about the past experiences, and how do we transfer them into accurate knowledge and historically informed decisions? HEX looks for answers to these fundamental questions by rethinking historical experiences, historical explanations and historical knowledge, and their place in the current world.

Narrare - Centre for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies draws together the narrative studies conducted at the different schools of the University of Tampere. Furthermore, it functions as a platform for national and international collaboration in interdisciplinary narrative studies.

Tampere Centre for Childhood, Youth and Family Research (PERLA) is a multidisciplinary venue of youth, childhood and family research.

Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI) is a multidisciplinary and international research centre whose mission is to conduct high quality research on the causes of war, on non-violent resolution of conflicts, and on conditions for peace.

Research Center for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (TaSTI) conducts research into the functioning of research communities, innovation environments and science and innovation policies.

Tampere Centre for Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Studies (TRIVIUM) is a multidisciplinary venue for researches and teachers of premodern society and culture.

Work Research Centre (WRC) combines basic academic research and contractual research, which serves the actual needs of society. Research focuses on work organisations, their practices and networks, the labour market and labour policy, and welfare, social relations and gender in working life.

In addition, SOC is part of following research centers that join multiple faculties:
Center for Cancer Eradication Research -tutkimuskeskus
Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation (TRANSIT)

Our faculty also hosts:
WHO Collaborating Centre on Health in All Policies and the Social Determinants of Health. 

Research Infrastructures

NEXUS - Research Infrastructure for Interaction Between Humans, Technology, and Society, 
comprising the following three laboratories from the faculty:
Human Information Processing Laboratory (HIP-Lab)
Psychology Clinic Psyke
Speech Research Center (PUTUKE)

Tampereen yliopiston kulttuuri- ja tutkimusarkisto TAKU
which also includes the former Folklife archives