Riikka Taavetti’s research while affiliated with University of Turku and other places

This article addresses the history of sociological sex research and its reception in Sweden and Finland. It describes the background and implementation of the first study in Sweden in 1967, and how the methodology of this study was adopted in Finland in 1971. Both of these studies were followed up in the 1990s with surveys that documented the changes in sexuality, 1992 in Finland and 1996 in Sweden. As the studies were labelled ‘Kinsey studies’ of their respective countries, the article examines the effect that the work of Alfred Kinsey's research group had on them. In particular, the article pays attention to the role of homosexuality in the studies and their reception, both in the mainstream media and in lesbian and gay organizations’ magazines. The article argues that, even though the studies recognized their position on the continuum of sex research stemming from Kinsey's work, they did not have a similar role in normalizing homosexuality. On the contrary, the studies showed diminishingly small numbers of homosexual respondents, even in the 1990s, when lesbian and gay rights were rapidly developing, and the studies were used to argue against equality and minority rights.

This article explores the connections between Estonian and Finnish lesbian communities in the early 1990s, based on oral history interviews along with media and archival sources. The Estonian lesbian community formed very quickly in the spring and summer of 1990 and from the very start developed a strong bond with the Finnish lesbian community that then lasted for several years. We have interviewed both Finnish and Estonian lesbian women about the period to learn about the activities of this transnational network and the meaning it carried for its members. In our analysis, we focus on personal and social challenges and tensions, national differences and diverse identities and ways of living as a lesbian woman, but also on the fun and rewarding connections. Our study portrays the transnational network as an example of a relatively equal community, despite the stark economic differences, and addresses how the translocal connections formed as a natural, important and integral part of the development of both these communities.

Riikka Taavetti käsittelee artikkelissaan seksiä ja seksuaalisuutta koskevien kyselytutkimusten tuottamia määritelmiäsuomalaisuudelle ja seksille vuosina 1971, 1992 ja 1999. Hän liittää tutkimukset yhtäältä osaksi seksitutkimuksen kehitystä ja toisaalta analysoi niitä suhteessa muuttuviin yhteiskunnallisiin käsityksiin siitä, mitä on seksi ja keitä ovat suomalaiset. Taavetti analysoi laajasti tutkimusten asetelmia, kyselylomakkeita, tutkimusjulkaisuja sekä tutkimusten aineistoja. Hän tarkastelee myös, miten tutkimuksissa on huomioitu yhteiskuntaluokka. Lisäksi hän arvioi, miten tutkimukset ovat rakentaneet suomalaisuutta perusjoukon rajausten, ulkomaalaisia koskevien kysymysten ja kansainvälisten vertailujen avulla.

This multidisciplinary volume reflects the shifting experiences and framings of Finnishness and its relation to race and coloniality. The authors centre their investigations on whiteness and unravel the cultural myth of a normative Finnish (white) ethnicity. Rather than presenting a unified definition for whiteness, the book gives space to the different understandings and analyses of its authors. This collection of case-studies illuminates how Indigenous and ethnic minorities have participated in defining notions of Finnishness, how historical and recent processes of migration have challenged the traditional conceptualisations of the nation-state and its population, and how imperial relationships have contributed to a complex set of discourses on Finnish compliance and identity. With an aim to question and problematise what may seem self-evident aspects of Finnish life and Finnishness, expert voices join together to offer (counter) perspectives on how Finnishness is constructed and perceived. Scholars from cultural studies, history, sociology, linguistics, genetics, among others, address four main topics: 1) Imaginations of Finnishness, including perceived physical characteristics of Finnish people; 2) Constructions of whiteness, entailing studies of those who do and do not pass as white; 3) Representations of belonging and exclusion, making up of accounts of perceptions of what it means to be ‘Finnish’; and 4) Imperialism and colonisation, including what might be considered uncomfortable or even surprising accounts of inclusion and exclusion in the Finnish context. This volume takes a first step in opening up a complex set of realities that define Finland’s changing role in the world and as a home to diverse populations.

Introduction During the past four decades memory has probably become the most influential and widely adopted term to describe the complex of temporal, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, material, and political manifestations and uses of the past in present. This collection focuses on localized politics of memories in various European contexts. It will attend to diverse memories related to the historical events and time periods in Estonia, Russia, Latvia, Finland, Germany, and Turkey by focusing on the interplay, tension, and negotiation between various scales of memory (see De Cesari & Rigney 2014). The term “politics of memory” often refers to the quiddity and instrumentality of memory. Jan Kubik and Michael Bernhard (2014) argue that a political science interpretation of the politics of memory is limited to the analysis of deliberate actions to make us remember in a certain way. Emphasized here is the manipulation of memory, particularly by states and other official actors. (For a discussion of Kubik and Bernhard's model from a Baltic perspective in particular, see Pettai 2016.) In an introduction to politics of memory and life writing in Eastern Europe, Simona Mitroiu (2015, 8, 16) argues that the concept of memory politics refers to state involvement in analyzing and preserving the past, as well as to systems of justice and “political responsibility for the past.” In this volume, however, we understand the concept of politics more broadly. In our utilization, “politics” in “politics of memory” refers to politicization, of becoming political and contested. In relation to memory, this politicization means that the past is opened as debated (Palonen 2003). These competing interpretations of the past also have political connotations for struggles over possible futures. Processes of politicization occur on different levels, from everyday interaction and diverse cultural representations to politics of the archive and politics as legal processes. In the chapters included in the present volume, the politicization of memories takes place on multiple analytical levels: those inherent to the sources; how the collections utilized, archived, or presented are gathered; and those involved with re-evaluating existing research. Moreover, politics of memory is the topic of study in a number of the analyses that address the processes of remembering, how memories become contested, and how they are debated in different contexts and between various scales.

This collection focuses on difficult memories and diverse identities related to conflicts and localized politics of memories. The contemporary and history-oriented case studies discuss politicized memories and pasts, the frictions of justice and reconciliation, and the diversity and fragmentation of difficult memories. The collection brings together methodological discussions from oral history research, cultural memory studies and the study of contemporary protest movements. The politicization of memories is analyzed in various contexts, ranging from everyday interaction and diverse cultural representations to politics of the archive and politics as legal processes. The politicization of memories takes place on multiple analytical levels: those inherent to the sources; the ways in which the collections are utilized, archived, or presented; and in the re-evaluation of existing research.