Social Media and the Emergence, Establishment and Transformation of the Right-Wing Populist Finns Party

This paper assesses the significance of social media for the Finns Party and the related anti-immigration movement from 2007 to the present day, in light of theories on the relationship of populism and social media. These include people-centrism, disenfranchisement, homophily, the attention economy, media elitism, and (lack of) communicative resources. Tracing the historical trajectory of the Finnish anti-immigration movement and the Finns Party, I argue that the Finnish case is an example of a movement being born online and using social media to build a political identity and strategically gain influence through a party, eventually transforming it from the inside out—rather than the party strategically using social media for its purposes, as is sometimes assumed in party-centric literature. While acknowledging the continued importance of parties, research on contemporary populist movements must take into account the political engagement of citizens facilitated by online media.Peer reviewe

Exploiting the Discursive Opportunity of the Euro Crisis: The Rise of The Finns Party

Peer reviewe

Familiarity as a tool of populism : Political appropriation of shared experiences and the case of Suvivirsi

490Populist argumentation claims to represent ‘the people’ against ‘the elite’, appealing to emotions and reacting to a sense of crisis. By analysing a public debate in Finland in which populist arguments appropriate a culturally shared, familiar experience – that of singing Suvivirsi, the Summer Hymn – I argue that evoking familiarity is an effective way of ‘doing populism’. Analysing media texts from 2002 to 2014 and a questionnaire to political candidates in 2011, and using Laurent The´venot’s sociology of engagements, the article shows that appeals to the familiarity of the hymn are particularly compatible with the populist valorization of the experience of the common people. Familiarity thus constitutes a central tool in the toolkit of populism. Remembering the shared experience of singing the hymn bonds the assumed ‘people’ together and gives an emotional charge to populist arguments. By drawing on pragmatist political sociology and analysing politics ‘in action’ in everyday disputes, the paper makes a novel contribution to the scholarship of populism.Peer reviewe

Populist knowledge : ‘Post-truth’ repertoires of contesting epistemic authorities

‘Post-truth politics’, particularly as manifested in ‘fake news’ spread by countermedia, is claimed to be endemic to contemporary populism. I argue that the relationship between knowledge and populism needs a more nuanced analysis. Many have noted that populism valorises ‘common sense’ over expertise. But another populist strategy is counterknowledge, proposing politically charged alternative knowledge authorities in the stead of established ones. I analyse countermedia in Finland, where they have played a part in the rise of right-wing populism, using a combination of computational and interpretive methods. In my data, right-wing populists advocate counterknowledge; they profess belief in truth achievable by inquiry, not by mainstream experts but alternative ones. This is a different knowledge orientation from the valorisation of ‘common sense’, and there is reason to believe it is somewhat specific to contemporary right-wing anti-immigration populism. Populism’s epistemologies are multifaceted but often absolutist, as is populism’s relationship to power and democracy.Peer reviewe

The Populist Toolkit : Finnish Populism in Action 2007–2016

Populism has often been understood as a description of political parties and politicians, who have been labelled either populist or not. This dissertation argues that it is more useful to conceive of populism in action: as something that is done rather than something that is. I propose that the populist toolkit is a collection of cultural practices, which politicians and citizens use to make sense of and do politics, by claiming that ‘the people’ are opposed by a corrupt elite – a powerful claim in contemporary politics, both in Finland and internationally. The concept of the populist toolkit has analytical utility, since it can separate a set of populist repertoires from others, for example that of exclusionary nationalism, and takes seriously the effect culture has on action, while avoiding cultural determinism. I study four instances in which the populist toolkit was used in Finnish politics from 2007 to 2016. As data, I use party publications, a Voting Advice Application, newspaper articles and opinion pieces, and a large set of online media data. Methodologically, I employ qualitative text analysis informed by theories of populism, cultural practices, frame analysis and Laurent Thévenot’s sociology of engagements, as well as topic modeling. Article I argues that the state of the Eurozone in 2011 gave the Finns Party an opportunity to frame the situation as a crisis for Finland and to present itself as a righteous populist challenger to established parties. Article II shows that the Finns Party uses anti-feminist arguments to present itself as a populist alternative. Article III presents a theory of how populist argumentation can use familiar emotional experiences in bonding ‘the people’ together. Article IV tackles the populist epistemology: while populism can be critical of intellectuals and experts in general, the article shows that another populist strategy is counterknowledge, incorporating alternative knowledge authorities. This strategy is particularly employed by the populist radical right. After the monumental success of right-wing populism in Western democracies, the next big question is whether left-wing or liberal actors will take up the tools of populism, or will they rather position themselves on the side of pluralism, democratic institutions and scientific expertise. This will have to be assessed by future studies.Populismia on usein käytetty kuvailevana käsitteenä poliittisten puolueiden, poliitikkojen ja joskus myös äänestäjien ominaisuuksista: onko joku populisti vai ei. Väitän, että on tutkimuksen kannalta hyödyllisempää ymmärtää populismi poliittisena toimintana, jossa erotetaan positiiviseen valoon asetettu kansa negatiivisessa valossa nähdystä eliitistä. ”Populismin työkalupakki” on kokoelma kulttuurisia käytäntöjä, joiden avulla niin poliitikot kuin kansalaisetkin ymmärtävät ja tekevät politiikkaa kansan ja eliitin vastakkainasettelun kautta. Populismin työkalupakki on käsitteenä hyödyllinen, koska se erottelee populististen käytäntöjen joukon muista työkalupakeista, kuten kansallismielisyydestä. Se huomioi kulttuurin vaikutuksen toiminnalle, välttäen kuitenkin kulttuurisen determinismin. Tutkin neljää tapausta, joissa populismin työkalupakkia käytettiin Suomessa vuosina 2007–2016. Aineistoina käytän Perussuomalaisten julkaisuja, Helsingin Sanomien Vaalikonetta, yleisönosastoa ja journalistista materiaalia, Hommaforumin keskusteluja sekä MV-lehden sisältöjä. Analysoin niitä käyttäen kvalitatiivista tekstianalyysia, jota ohjaavat populismin ja kulttuuristen käytäntöjen teoriat, kehysanalyysi ja Laurent Thévenot’n sitoumusten sosiologia, sekä laskennallista aihemallinnusta. Artikkeli I osoittaa, että euroalueen talous vuonna 2011 antoi Perussuomalaisille mahdollisuuden kehystää tilanne kriisinä Suomelle, ja samalla itsensä oikeamielisenä populistisena haastajana valtapuolueille. Artikkelissa II näytämme, kuinka Perussuomalaiset käyttää feminisminvastaisuutta esittääkseen itsensä populistisena vaihtoehtona. Artikkeli III esittelee teorian siitä, kuinka populismi voi käyttää hyväkseen tuttuja tunnekokemuksia sitoakseen ”kansaa” yhteen. Artikkeli IV käsittelee populismin tietoteoriaa: vaikka populismi on usein yleisesti asiantuntijakriittistä, toinen mahdollinen populistinen tietostrategia on tuottaa vastatietoa ja vasta-asiantuntijuuksia, ja tämä strategia sopii erityisesti oikeistopopulismiin. Oikeistopopulismin länsimaissa saavuttaman suosion jälkeen on jatkotutkimuksissa olennaista kysyä, omaksuvatko vasemmistolaiset ja liberaalit toimijat jatkossa populismin työkalut, vai asemoivatko ne itsensä populismia vastaan; pluralismin, liberaalidemokraattisten instituutioiden ja asiantuntijatiedon puolelle

What is Finnish about The Finns Party? : Political Culture and Populism

This Master’s thesis focuses on the arguments and justifications of Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset, PS) candidates before the Finnish parliamentary elections of 2011, where the populist party succeeded tremendously, over quadrupling its share of votes. The context is one of a rising tide of nationalist populism in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe. Other studies have theoretically and empirically provided some explanations for this dynamic both elsewhere and in Finland. However, a study of political sociology on the Finns Party candidates’ argumentation can shed light on the cultural specificity the nationalist populist phenomenon takes on in the Finnish case. It is argued here that this specificity is born out of the legacy of Finnish populism, nationalism and political culture, including the legacy of the Finnish Rural Party (Suomen maaseudun puolue, SMP, 1959–1995), the predecessor of the PS. Data that facilitates such an analysis is found in the Helsingin Sanomat Voting Advice Application. This political questionnaire was answered by 202 (85%) PS candidates and released online as open data, providing a unique dataset not previously available. By a content analysis informed by the justification theory of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot, the study answers the following questions: How is Finnish political culture and history visible in the way the European populist phenomenon takes its shape in the PS? Is the PS geographically divided to a rural part with SMP rural populist roots and an urban part in line with the contemporary European populist radical right? It was hypothesized that rural PS populism is more left-wing in nature and stresses rural poverty, whereas urban PS populism sees immigration issues as more salient and is more right-wing in its economic policy. The rural candidates were expected to present justifications based on equality and social justice more often, and the urban candidates to use ones based on market efficiency. This hypothesis indeed holds true, according to the results of this study, but with some critical corrections. First, the rural/urban division is not as clear-cut as hypothesized. The radical right candidates are a minority even within the urban candidates. The mainstream of rural and urban candidates was more of a left-populist nature. Second, while a gender aspect was missing from the hypothesis, gender was indeed to be considered, since the radical right candidates were even more overwhelmingly male than they were urban. Third, while there were differences between the rural and urban candidates in their usage of justifications, this varied with the question and was not as consistent as hypothesized. Nevertheless, the use of justifications based on efficiency was notable. Both rural and urban candidates often related to political issues as to be decided upon with calculations of expected consequences. This is something that is typical of Finnish political culture, and in this study, it is found to be typical of Finnish populism as well

Ideologista kartanpiirtoa : Book review: Koivulaakso, Brunila & Andersson: Äärioikeisto Suomessa (Into Kustannus 2012)

Non peer reviewe

Populismista, eli meistä ja muista

Arvioitu teos: Herkman, Juha (2019). Populismin aika. Tampere: Vastapaino, 205 s.Non peer reviewe

Topic modeling for frame analysis : A study of media debates on climate change in India and USA

We argue that 'topics' of topic models can be used as a useful proxy for frames if (1) frames are operationalized as connections between concepts; (2) theme-specific data are used; and (3) topics are validated in terms of frame analysis. Demonstrating this, we analyse 12 climate change frames used by NGOs, governments and experts in Indian and US media, gathered by topic modeling. We contribute methodologically to topic modeling in the social sciences and frame analysis of public debates, and empirically to research on climate change media debates.Peer reviewe

Contesting Gender Equality Politics in Finland : The Finns Party Effect

Peer reviewe