Suchergebnisse

This article analyses representations of Conservative Laestadianism in contempor ary Finnish and Finnish-American popular culture. Drawing from political studies, religious studies and cultural studies, the article sheds light on the ways in which Conservative Laestadianism is present in societal debate and in the cultural imagination. Focusing on religious corporeality, the article scrutinises the embodied practices of Conservative Laestadianism and the ways in which the representations participate in making sense of gender, sexuality, and power in religious communities. Contemporary understandings in popular culture are revealed through the detailed analysis of four cultural products of different genres depicting Conservative Laestadianism: a film entitled Kielletty hedelmä (Forbidden Fruit, 2009), a novel entitled We Sinners (2012), a reality television show entitled Iholla (On the Skin, 2013), and a play entitled Taivaslaulu (Heavensong, 2015). As a synthesis of the representations of Conservative Laestadianism, the article presents a dynamic triad of care, longing, and control. Furthermore, the article raises questions about the potential of popular culture in calling for a dialogue between Conservative Laestadianism and society at large.

This article analyses representations of Conservative Laestadianism in contemporary Finnish and Finnish-American popular culture. Drawing from political studies, religious studies and cultural studies, the article sheds light on the ways in which Conservative Laestadianism is present in societal debate and in the cultural imagination. Focusing on religious corporeality, the article scrutinises the embodied practices of Conservative Laestadianism and the ways in which the representations participate in making sense of gender, sexuality, and power in religious communities. Contemporary understandings in popular culture are revealed through the detailed analysis of four cultural products of different genres depicting Conservative Laestadianism: a film entitled Kielletty hedelmä (Forbidden Fruit, 2009), a novel entitled We Sinners (2012), a reality television show entitled Iholla (On the Skin, 2013), and a play entitled Taivaslaulu (Heavensong, 2015). As a synthesis of the representations of Conservative Laestadianism, the article presents a dynamic triad of care, longing, and control. Furthermore, the article raises questions about the potential of popular culture in calling for a dialogue between Conservative Laestadianism and society at large.

1. Introduction / Aini Linjakumpu and Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo -- 2. History as a project of progress? : The North as a focus of attention / Marja Tuominen -- 3. 'Chapters' of progress : the case of a village idiot / Palvi Rantala -- 4. Progress and emotions in Lapland / Aini Linjakumpu -- 5. Remembering and forgetting the Second World War in Finland / Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo -- 6. Narratives of progress in the politics of Urho Kekkonen and the Agrarian League / Petri Koikkalainen -- 7. Northern universities and the changing status of minorities / Lars Elenius -- 8. Slow activism : art in progress in the North / Mirja Hiltunen -- 9. From emotional memory to active awareness : counter-memory and resistance in Torne Valley Finnish literature / Riitta Kontio -- 10. Women behind the camera in the early 1900s at the arctic circle : a step toward independence / Mervi Autti -- 11. Concluding remarks / Aini Linjakumpu and Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo.

"Drawing on contemporary and historical case studies from Finland, Sweden and Norway, Progress or Perish highlights the roles that art, culture and academic research play alongside technology and economics as bearers of change, approaching the study of progress from the human level. By turning attention towards communities and the everyday social activities of individuals in their socio-cultural and microhistorical contexts, this volume links the idea of progress to the emancipation and empowerment of collectives

This article brings to light multiple manifestations of colonial power relations and the interplay of religion and indigenous culture by analysing Sámi women's experiences of empowerment and subjectivity at the intersections of Firstborn Laestadianism, a conservative religious movement, and Sámi culture. The article argues that if we are to develop culturally sensitive research approaches and practices in social work, it is important to understand and take into account the complexity of religious and ethnic commitments and structures. The article thus deepens the cultural and communal knowledge needed to better inform social work practices and research with indigenous and religious communities.

This article analyses religious belonging in a Christian revivalist community through a reading of Hanna Pylväinen's novel We Sinners, a fictive history of a Laestadian family in the modern American Midwest. Like many conservative religious groups today, Laestadianism is increasingly affected by secular society's norms and practices. We claim that the study of everyday religious belonging is essential in order to make sense of the power relations, structures, and dynamics of change within religious groups. The article approaches belonging as a thoroughly embodied state, taking the view that certain kinds of corporeality threaten the cohesion of religious communities while others strengthen it. The politics of belonging in the novel – the practices of inclusion and exclusion – are constructed in, on, and through the regulation of individual bodies. Control over clothing, behaviour, sexuality, movement, and being-in-common produces and governs embodied Laestadian subjectivity, as well as the ways in which belonging is shared.

This article analyses religious belonging in a Christian revivalist community through a reading of Hanna Pylväinen's novel We Sinners, a fictive history of a Laestadian family in the modern American Midwest. Like many conservative religious groups today, Laestadianism is increasingly affected by secular society's norms and practices. We claim that the study of everyday religious belonging is essential in order to make sense of the power relations, structures, and dynamics of change within religious groups. The article approaches belonging as a thoroughly embodied state, taking the view that certain kinds of corporeality threaten the cohesion of religious communities while others strengthen it. The politics of belonging in the novel – the practices of inclusion and exclusion – are constructed in, on, and through the regulation of individual bodies. Control over clothing, behaviour, sexuality, movement, and being-in-common produces and governs embodied Laestadian subjectivity, as well as the ways in which belonging is shared.