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Introduction
Political philosopher and social scientist working in the intersections of normative theory and empirical social science. I have conducted research on topics such as political economy, utopian studies, development policy, democracy theory, social justice and social movements.
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Publications
Publications (66)
The Revival of Political Imagination offers a unique examination of the methodological aspects of utopia. Discussing utopia as a tool for social criticism, method and imaginative spaces - rather than in terms of its content - this volume analyses the function of utopias, to develop utopias as methodology and to show how instrumental utopian modes o...
![Underlying infrastructures of ridesharing. Sources: [1] Statistics...](profile/Teppo-Eskelinen/publication/352039356/figure/tbl1/AS:1029995942117377@1622581577413/Underlying-infrastructures-of-ridesharing-Sources-1-Statistics-Finland-2018b-2-FTA_Q320.jpg)
The article analyses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the perspective of their self-understanding of political sense expressed in key SDG documents, including both UN documents and reports produced by individual countries. Utopia and governance are presented as ideal-typical approaches and analytical tools for qualitative content analy...
Social problems in the global South are often explained by reference to domestic decisions or “institutional quality” in the Southern countries, while there are also prominent criticisms of such “nationalist explanations”. Crucially, the dispute over correct mode of explanation is not only epistemological, but also political, as has been often note...
In this chapter we track the influence of the dominant neoclassical economic model’s mindset and ontological framework, which actively steers focus away from institutional transformation towards strong sustainability. The wide penetration of the neoclassical way of thought in environmental debates and public policy in general ‘naturalises’ its prim...
The article analyzes utopian thinking within the current climate movement, with a particular focus on the Finnish movement, and develops analysis of contemporary society through utopias. Empirically, it is based on material collected in the context of a protest week called ‘Utopia rebellion’, in Helsinki in 2022. We use material such as statements,...
The article discusses the meaning of “ethical” in the context of ethical goods. Terms like “ethical” or “responsible” have assumed new meanings when used to indicate the quality of a product or material. In the article, we analyse the transformed notion of “ethical”, its limits and extensions, using the case of cobalt mining and electronics as an i...
This article provides a case study of the game Le Grand Jeu (LGJ), which extends into a general analysis of the potential of games in the diversification of the economy, in particular with regard to money. Further, we explore LGJ's capacity to expand the horizon of the possible, as is often called for in theories of degrowth and related literature....
The article discusses the recent treatment of Finland by the US Left, criticises this from a Finnish point of view, and engages in a discussion on treating existing countries in utopian terms and the need to analyse countries as evolving through power struggle rather than "models".
This chapter reviews, from the perspective of radical democracy, current threats to democracy and possible ways ahead. It is argued that the attempts to defend democracy from its authoritarian challenges, while naturally commendable as such, too often fail to engage in a process of properly defining democratic ideals. The currently hegemonic form o...
The article analyses timebanks as a "currency commons" and a complementary currency, particularly highlighting its political (transformative) and pedagogical aspects. Drawing from experiences from Helsinki timebank, the article argues that timebanks should be seen as open and engaging processes rather than mere alternative institutions of exchange....
Methodological utopianism is used to explore the potential of money via two examples, making use of simulacrum case study research. These examples are the Banjar, a traditional Balinese governance and currency system; and the Neocracy, a real cryptocurrency system. Both are considered through an integralist positioning with implications for practic...
This paper offers an analysis of how normative theories on global poverty make assumptions regarding the geography of global poverty and global power constellations. I follow some recent global developments relevant to these assumptions, and ask whether normative theorizing should react to these developments. I argue that while accounts of global j...
Artikkeli analysoi poliittisen kuluttajuuden tiloja, mahdollisuuksia ja haasteita maailmankauppatoiminnan näkökulmasta. Maailmankaupat ovat yhdistysmuotoisia reilun kaupan erikoisliikkeitä, jotka pyrkivät luomaan tasa-arvoisempaa maailmankauppaa ja tiedottamaan globaalin talouden vääristymistä. Niiden voi katsoa edustavan vaihtoehtoisia markkinoita...
Artikkelissa paneudutaan aiheeseen, jonka merkitys on periaatteessa tunnistettu mutta jota on empiirisesti tutkittu vasta vähän: oman tilan merkitykseen kansalaistoimijoille ja kansalaistoiminnan muotoutumiselle. Aihetta havainnollistetaan kahden tapausesimerkin kautta, jotka ovat seurantalot sekä maailmankauppayhdistysten (kehitysmaakauppayhdistys...
The accessibility, availability and consumption of food in food and agriculture systems are key public health and food security concerns. We draw on empirical research from members of the Community Economies Research Network from Australia, New Zealand, India and Finland to reimagine food and agriculture systems as a planetary food commons (PFC). P...
Purpose
This paper explores economic moralities in self-organised alternative economies and argues that the diverse economies approach is particularly useful in elaborating the self-understandings of such economic communities. The analysis focuses on two types of alternative economies in Finland: ridesharing and timebanking.
Design/methodology/app...
Katsausteksti tarkastelee kansalaisrohkeutta ja kansalaistottelemattomuutta useista eri näkökulmista käsin, pohtien muun muassa yksilön ja kollektiivien organisoitumista epäoikeudenmukaisuuden ja epätasa-arvon vastustamiseksi, kansalaisuuteen liittyviä jännitteitä, erilaisia demokratiakäsityksiä, tutkijoiden yhteiskunnallista roolia ja vastuuta sek...
The article is a case study of a local currency, recently introduced in the rurally situated municipality of Sysmä, Finland. As a small community suffering a gradual population decline since the 1960s, Sysmä municipality has begun to innovate with several projects this millennium. Here, we analyse as a narrative and from the viewpoint of experience...
The article examines the challenges to self-organisation and upscaling of alternative economies from the viewpoint of defending and negotiating social space. Timebanks in Finland and the UK are presented as examples, analysing the difference of defending such social space in the contexts of a traditional welfare state (in the case of Finland) and a...
The Millennium Development Goals were effective from 2000 to 2015. Statistics show that most of the goals were met, and particularly success in the goal of reducing extreme poverty (MDGl) gained wide recognition. Despite the strong ethical language related to poverty reduction, there has been little analysis of the ethical significance of the MDG a...
The Millennium Development Goals were effective from 2000 to 2015. Statistics show that most of the goals were met, and particularly success in the goal of reducing extreme poverty (MDG1) gained wide recognition. Despite the strong ethical language related to poverty reduction, there has been little analysis of the ethical significance of the MDG a...
Artikkeli on pidempi versio Politiikka-lehdessä ilmestyneestä artikkelista. Alkuperäinen viite: Sorsa, Ville-Pekka ja Eskelinen, Teppo (2018) Taloustieteellinen asiantuntemus teknotaloudellisessa kapitalismissa. Politiikka, 60:1, 79-88.
The recurring financial crises and intensive financialisation force a reconsideration of theories of justice. This article analyses financial capitalism as an ideal-type. In ideal-typical financial capitalism, risks and positions of vulnerability take a pronounced role in the determination of social positions. Risks also come in a specific ontologi...
In this article, we explore the prospects of Basic Income (BI) as a development policy tool. Our approach is to analyse the BI as a tool for promoting micro-investments and as a general development policy instrument, thus deliberately departing from the perception of cash transfers as targeted poverty reduction tools. As experiences in testing BI s...
Artikkelissa tutkitaan taloustiedettä episteemisenä yhteisönä ja tämän episteemisen yhteisön käyttämiä retorisia keinoja rajojensa puolustamiseen. Episteemisen yhteisön teoria korostaa jaettuja metodologisia lähtökohtia ja arvolähtökohtia yhteisöjen koossapitävinä voimina, minkä lisäksi taloustiede on havaittu tutkimuksessa erityisen metodologisest...
Tax havens and tax flight have lately received increasing attention, while interest toward multilateral trade policies has somewhat diminished. We argue that more attention needs to be paid exactly to the interrelations between trade and tax policies. Drawing from two case studies on Panama's trade disputes, we show how World Trade Organization (WT...
This article focuses in the allocation of financial risks from the viewpoint of social justice. In contemporary society, finance and the related risk allocation patterns have become highly important in determining the social positions of individuals. Yet it is somewhat unclear how ‘financial risks’ should be understood in normative theory and to wh...
Tutkimme tässä artikkelissa kestävyyden (englanniksi sustainability) käsitteen merkitystä, käyttöä ja käyttökelpoisuutta tieteellisessä tutkimuksessa. Pyrimme huomioimaan myös yhteiskunta- ja ihmistieteiden erityisluonteen käsitteen paikkaa ja mahdollisuuksia analysoitaessa. Lähtökohtanamme on, että “kestävyydestä” on tullut liian yleinen, lavea ja...
As the global economy seeks to recover from the financial crisis and warnings about the consequences of climate change abound, it is clear that we need a fundamentally new approach to tackle these issues. This innovative book offers a unique perspective, stressing the necessity of both ecological and social change as it discusses how to create a "r...
The article focuses on the justification of taxation, in other words the principled rather than the technical aspect of taxation. We first show how, on the one hand, democracy is required for taxation to be legitimate, and how on the other hand democratic communities are dependent on taxation, and argue that this does not constitute a vicious circl...
Abstract: Modern society is characterised by the constant production, commodification,
and distribution of risks, which has also become an increasingly important
political issue. Given the commodification and the resulting distributability
of risks, risks have become an issue of distributive justice instead of
mere reason for precautionary concerns...
Aikapankit ja muut vaihtoehtoisen talouden muodot ovat herättäneet viime aikoina paljon mielenkiintoa ja julkista keskustelua. Kiinnostuksen taustalla lienee useita eri syitä, kuten pitkittyvä reaalitalouden kriisi, repaleiseksi käyvä hyvinvointivaltio, sekä sosiaalisten turvaverkkojen hajoaminen urbaanin yksilöllistymisen kääntöpuolena. Suomessa t...
Most of the ethical literature on extreme poverty suggests, that some, if not most, of the incomes of the residents of rich countries ought to be donated to the global poor. Yet complying with this ethical demand becomes increasingly more difficult as the changes in lifestyle in the (post)industrial north demand ever more consumption in order to ob...
Economic discourses are dominated by stylized facts and other statements of fact concerning the institutional economic order. Yet, there is still very little knowledge on how exactly facts are formed in economic discourse, how they serve as a means for rendering issues “economic”, and how they legitimize, renew and change institutions. This article...
Analysoin artikkelissa "ekologisen velan" käsitettä ja siitä nousevaa politiikkaa. Käsite on pääosin kansalaisjärjestöjen esiin nostama ja marginaalinen, mutta vallitsevassa maail-manpolitiikassa nouseva. Esittelen aluksi ekologisen velan käsitettä yleisesti, minkä jäl-keen osoitan käsitteeseen liittyviä monitulkintaisuuksia. Erityisesti analysoin...
The matter of the nature of the duties of the rich to alleviate (and ideally, to abolish) suffering caused by extreme poverty has been widely debated in contemporary political philosophy and practical ethics. Typically, two questions are raised: first, do the rich have negative or positive duties; and second, on this basis, how should they act? In...
In this article, I discuss the location of the sources of global poverty and injustice. I take it as granted that the members of the globally lowest income group live in unacceptable conditions and suffer from injustice. Yet the source of this injustice is a debatable question. Often the existing global institutions are seen as major causes behind...
