People

Principal investigator

Jukka Jouhki

University Lecturer
Faculty of Social Sciences
Tampere University
+358505273217
jukka.jouhki@tuni.fi

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1388-1225

About me

I hold a PhD in Cultural Anthropology (University of Jyväskylä, 2006) and am a Docent in Ethnology (University of Jyväskylä, 2009) and the Cultural Study of Technology (University of Turku, 2022). I have worked in various research and/or teaching positions since 2002 at the universities of Jyväskylä, Turku, and, since 2022, Tampere. My doctoral thesis was an ethnographic study on orientalism and occidentalism in South India. My post-doctoral project (2006-2009) dealt with media culture and the information society in South Korea, after which I have researched technology in its various forms, such as online gambling, mobile phone use in rural India, and the impression management of humanoid Sophia the Robot.

In India, I have also studied voting in slums and the work experiences of Finnish managers. Additionally, I have conducted research in The Gambia, focusing on child marriages and female genital mutilation.

Perhaps my most extensive research topic is the West as a community and Western identity as an idea, which also ties into my role as the leader of the international research network, The West Network (2016-2022). Related to the West theme, I have edited two works: Contestations of Liberal Order: The West in Crisis? and Länsi: käsite, kertomus ja maailmankuva [The West: Concept, Narrative, and Worldview], and I am the PI of the research project titled Imagined West: Occidentalist Narrative in Finnish News Media in the Context of war in Ukraine in 2025-2026.

I am also interested in making documentaries: Päivä Intiassa [= A Day in India] published by Yle depicts the daily life of two Finns working in India, The Defence follows a researcher on their doctoral defense day, and Macao: A Gambling City is about the casino business in the Macau Special Administrative Region of China.

Methodologically, I am particularly interested in qualitative research, including various forms of ethnographic fieldwork (classical, digital, and film ethnography) and media analysis. My theoretical interests include the concepts of Orientalism and Occidentalism, banal nationalism and banal Occidentalism, imagined communities, and hyperreality. All my research aims to understand human community, cultural meanings, and collective identities.

From 2018 to 2021, I was the editor-in-chief of the Human Technology journal. I have also served as the president of the Finnish Anthropological Society (2021-2025).

Responsibilities

Social Research.

Main positions of trust

Selected publications

See all publications here.

Scientific books

Marko Lehti, Henna-Riikka Pennanen & Jukka Jouhki (eds.) 2020. Contestations of Liberal Order: The West in Crisis? Palgrave.

Jukka Jouhki 2006. Imagining the Other. Orientalism and Occidentalism in Tamil-European Relations in South India. University of Jyväskylä.

Peer-reviewed articles

Jukka Jouhki 2021. Likable and Competent, Fictional and Real: Impression Management of a Social Robot. In: James E. Katz, Juliet Floyd & Katie Schiepers (eds.), Perceiving the Future through New Communication Technologies: Robots, AI and Everyday Life. Palgrave.

Jukka Jouhki 2020. Balancing Between Narratives of the West and Hindu Nationalism in Emerging India. In: Marko Lehti, Henna-Riikka Pennanen & Jukka Jouhki (eds.), Contestations of Liberal Order: The West in Crisis? Palgrave.

Jukka Jouhki 2017. The Hyperreal Gambler. Visual Construction of Men in Online Poker Ads. Journal of Extreme Anthropology 1 (2).

Jukka Jouhki 2016. Global Issues, Western Foci: Banal Occidentalism in a Finnish Newspaper. Suomen Antropologi: The Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 41 (2).

Jukka Jouhki, Epp Lauk, Maija Penttinen, Niina Sormanen & Turo Uskali 2016. Facebook’s Emotional Contagion Experiment as a Challenge to Research Ethics. Media & Communication 4 (4).

Jukka Jouhki 2015. The Grinders: Making Meaning in the Online and Offline Lives of Internet Poker Players. Ethnologia Fennica 42.

Jukka Jouhki 2013. A Phone of One’s Own? Social Value, Cultural Meaning and Gendered Use of the Mobile Phone in South India. Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 38 (1).

Jukka Jouhki 2011. Eomjijok – The Korean Thumb Tribe. Reflections of Young and Urban Koreans’ Mobile Communication. In: Sonja Kangas (ed.), Digital Pioneers: Cultural Drivers of Future Media Culture. Youth Research Society.

Jukka Jouhki & Il-Hyun Baek 2008. Government – Press Relations in South Korea: The Debate about Press Rooms. Global Media Journal: American Edition 8 (13).

Other scientific texts

Jukka Jouhki 2021. Life-saving technologies that are not used to save lives. Human Technology 17 (1).

Jukka Jouhki 2020. Do humans dream of prophetic robots? Human Technology 16 (2).

Jukka Jouhki & Laura Stark 2017. Causes and Motives of Early Marriage in The Gambia and Tanzania. Is New Legislation Enough? Poverty and Development Working Papers 1.

Jukka Jouhki 2017. Democracy in the Slum. Meanings of Voting Among the Poor of Chennai. In: Xenia Zeiler (ed.), Research on India in Finland: Past, Present, Future. Embassy of India in Finland.

Jukka Jouhki & Henna-Riikka Pennanen 2016. The Imagined West: Exploring Occidentalism. Suomen Antropologi: The Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 41 (2).

Jukka Jouhki & Marika Paaso 2013. Finns Making Sense of Korean Hierarchy. How Expatriates from Finland Experience Hierarchy in a Korean Working Environment. In: Clara Sarmento & Victor Oliveira (eds.), Intercultural Communication, Representations and Practices: A Global Approach. The Polytechnic Institute of Porto.

Jukka Jouhki 2012. Home Sweet Computerized Home: The Meaning of Home in Korean Ubiquitous Society Vision. Ethnologia Fennica 39.

Jukka Jouhki 2009. Dokdo Island Dispute: Korean Reconstruction of History and National Identity in User-Created Content Media. In: Anna Maj & Daniel Riha (eds.), Digital Memories: Exploring Critical Issues. Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Postdoctoral researcher

Jere Kyyrö

Post Doc Researcher.

Research Assistant

Suvi Mononen

Research Assistant
Faculty of Social Sciences
Tampere University
+358504011984
suvi.mononen@tuni.fi

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5920-1830

Advisory Group

Toni Alaranta

Doctor of Political Science, Senior Researcher, Finnish Institute of International Affairs.

Riccardo Bavaj

Professor of History, University of St Andrews.

Alastair Bonnett

Professor of Social Geography, Newcastle University.

Pekka Korhonen

Professor of Political Science (Emeritus), University of Jyväskylä.

Yrjö Lauranto

Docent of Finnish Language, University of Helsinki.

Marie-Josée Lavallée

PhD, Researcher and Lecturer in History, Université de Montréal.

Marko Lehti

Research Director, Tampere Peace Research Institute.

Teemu Oivo

Postdoctoral Researcher, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland.

Henna-Riikka Pennanen

Postdoctoral Researcher in Social Research, Tampere University.

Matti Puranen

Senior Researcher, National Defence University.

Ann-Judith Rabenschlag

University Lecturer in History, Dalarna University.

Jenni Räikkönen

Postdoctoral Researcher in Linguistics, University of Helsinki.

Johanna Sumiala

Professor of Communication and Media Studies, University of Helsinki.

Johanna Vuorelma

University Researcher in Social Policy, Centre for European Studies, University of Helsinki; Docent of Political Science; Editor-in-Chief of Nordic Review of International Studies.