Call for Papers for the Symposium
Where can imagination take us? Possibilities of imagination in research practice
8th of April, Tampere University, Linna-building, Kalevantie 5
Which kinds of possibilities does imagination offer as a research method? How can imagination be utilized to transgress disciplinary boundaries and to inspire the creation of new solutions in our current time? Join the Symposium ”Where can imagination take us? Possibilities of imagination in research practice”, on the 8th of April to learn about and discuss these fascinating questions. In the morning, there will be three keynote speeches on these topics. For the afternoon session, we welcome research papers on how imagination can be used and developed in research.
Researchers from several fields are increasingly fascinated by the concept of imagination, including political, sociological, ethnographic, and subcultural imagination, and many more. Imagination is essential for situating and making sense of one’s environments and life-projects, thereby contributing to the understanding of human behavior and social change. It helps us to explore possibilities, understand different perspectives and explore abstract, complex, embodied, and emotional phenomena that traditional methods may not capture.
Imagination has been increasingly recognized as a valuable tool in research, offering a rich, multifaceted approach to complex social phenomena extending epistemological and methodological possibilities. It encourages creativity, reflexivity, and ethical engagement creating an important shared space for researchers and research participants. Imagination allows us to understand diverse meaning-making processes and to visualize alternative futures, hope and utopias at a time when current sociopolitical structures face serious challenges.
The symposium starts with three keynotes: Prof. Shane Blackman (Cultural Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK) discusses the possibility of youth research imagination focusing on the historical development of ethnographic methods and discussions around researcher positionality, Dr. Sanna Ryynänen (Social Pedagogy, University of Eastern Finland) examines theatre as a research tool to harness the capacity to imagine what lies beyond personal experience, Prof. Päivi Honkatukia, Dr. Jenni Kallio and Dr. Susanna Ågren (Youth Research, Tampere University, Finland) present their understanding and experiences of using youth research imagination while studying “the youth mental health crisis” from a youth-centred perspective. Together, the keynote talks highlight and reflect the power of imagination in deepening our understanding of youth experiences.
Program
Morning session: Keynotes
Venue: LINNA 5026, Kalevantie 5, 5th floor
9:45: Coffee
10:15-10:45: Shane Blackman: Re-imagined sociology: can there be a creative youth research imagination?
10:45-11:15: Sanna Ryynänen: Interweaving Theatre and Research: The Power and Limits of Imagination
11:15-11:45 Päivi Honkatukia, Jenni Kallio & Susanna Ågren: Harnessing Youth Research Imagination: Field Work Reflections on Studying Mental Health
11.45-12.00 Discussion
12:00 – 13:15 Lunch (at one’s own cost)
Afternoon sessions
Time: 13:15-16:00 Venues (Linna K110, Linna K112, Linna 4031, Linna 4048)
Linna K110: Migration, multiculturalism, inter-group, belonging, narratives
Chairs: Tiina Rättilä, Barış Yüksel
13.15-13.50 Rättilä & Rinne: John Rawls, Social contract Theory and Imagination: How We Developed an Innovative Method for Studying Inter-Group Relations in Diversifying Communities
13.50-14.25 Yüksel: Postmigrant Futures and Imaginaries: Rethinking Migration in Finland and Germany through Belonging
14.25-14.50 Coffee break
14.50-15.25 Kallio: Imagination of dream school for newly arrived migrant students: The emotion painting method speaks when there is no common spoken language
15:25-16:00 Basu: Phantoms of the Drains: Imaginations of Conflict in Everyday Infrastructures
Linna K112: Visualising research, participatory photography, qualitative analysis of visual material, Freire & ‘imagined education’
Chairs: Heta Mulari, Nadezhda Vasileva
13.15-13.50 Mulari & Vasileva: Imagination in Practice: Visual Interpretation of a Research Project
13.50-14.25 Niiniranta: Peace, Photography, and Imagination
14.25-14.50 Coffee break
14.50-15.25 Stańczyk: Claudius Ceccon’s Comic Strip ‘Nô Pintcha
15:25-16:00 Hänninen: Imagine: Kontula Art School
Linna 4031 (for 10 persons): Imagining the future, young people, spatial studies, imagined geographies
Chair: Jaana Suontausta
13.15-13.50 Kingumets & Saloniemi: Youth future aspirations in an urban (double) periphery in Western Finland
13.50-14.25 Ribeiro: Imagination and the future: can it do something else than estimate or predict?
14.25-14.50 Coffee break
14.50-15.25 Kallio & the HUMANE-CLIMATE research team: Empathic decolonising imaginations: unlearning climate-changed geographies in play space
15:25-16:00 Arockia: Anchoring the Imagined: Implementing Literary Cartography to Decipher the Lefebvrian Perceived in the Snake and the Lotus (online)
Linna 4048 (for 8 persons): Gamification, augmented reality, collaborative learning, ‘slow technology’, adaptation
Chair: Päivi Honkatukia
13.15-13.50 Ghosh: Beyond the Horizon: Reimagining Spatial Narratives Through Verticality and Resistance
13.50-14.25 Sabiri: Augmented Minds: Harnessing AR Collective Intelligence to Revolutionize Collaborative Learning (online)
14.25-14.50 Coffee break
14.50-15.25 Rahman: Bridging Happiness: Adapting the Finnish Way of Life in Bangladesh
Register for the Symposium here
Abstracts of the key-note talks
Re-imagined sociology: can there be a creative youth research imagination?
Shane Blackman
Qualitative and ethnographic research is based on the ‘gift relationship,’ underpinned by mutual care and trust: this is at the heart of the Creative Youth Research Imagination (Mauss 1935/50). The modern foundation to the idea of imagination in sociology is derived from C. W. Mills (1959) and was ‘hard won’ against abstract paradigms asserting objectivity and neutrality. The groundwork for the research imagination emerged within Chicago, at Hull House and the Sociology department (Palmer 1928). Where ethnography, biography and the subjective became features of interactive dialogue within fieldwork understood as creating opportunities for interpretation and use of the researched and the researcher’s imagination. This emergent tradition formed the basis of the reimagined sociology under Mills whereby the sociological imagination became both a craft and critique as a methodological framework for the generation of grounded sociological theory. The presentation will seek to explore what is and how the Youth Research Imagination might be understood through the development of Herbert Blumer’s (1954/69) ‘sensitizing concepts’ alongside researcher positionality. Recognition of co-production within the sociological and subcultural imagination are fields of knowledge for researchers and participants – sharing and blurring – to build reflexive studies through Donna Haraway’s (1988) ‘situated knowledge’ to avoid exclusive insider approaches with some hesitation. Creative interpretation occurs through the interactive voices articulated together and with narrative opportunities for ‘radical imagination’ described by Saidiya Hartman (2008, 2019) as ‘critical fabulation.’ While at the same time I will address the dangers of ventriloquism i.e. speaking for others and power instabilities in co-production which may offer little of value for young research participants. Using cases from the multi-sited research imaginary I will share some fieldwork moments of fun, danger and empathy across several ethnographic studies.
Interweaving Theatre and Research: The Power and Limits of Imagination
Sanna Ryynänen
In my presentation, I will reflect on different ways to approach imagination as a research method, drawing from my two research projects that interweave theatre and research. Puhekupla, or ‘Speech Bubble’, (2017–2021) was a collective of three performance artists and three social scientists, an event concept and a research project. The project combined participatory theatre and social scientific research to approach, with various audiences, questions relating to ethnic relations, discrimination and racism. Temppurata, or ‘Trick Track’, (2025–2027) project combines social scientific research and contemporary puppetry to explore the state of the Finnish welfare system in the 2020s. In the project, contemporary puppetry serves both as the artistic medium for the forthcoming performance and as a method of seeing and acting differently.
In my presentation, I will reflect on how (participatory) theatre can harness the capacity to imagine what lies beyond personal experience, opening up new ways for researchers and research participants to understand and conceptualize the world. I also explore what social scientific research could learn from contemporary puppetry in terms of imagination. To examine the boundaries and limits of imagination, I apply a decolonial perspective to reflect on what remains unimaginable and inarticulate within our current frames of reference.
Harnessing Youth Research Imagination: Field Work Reflections on Studying Mental Health
Päivi Honkatukia, Jenni Kallio & Susanna Ågren
In this presentation, we offer an in-depth exploration of the application of youth research imagination as a tool in knowledge production. As members of the Under Pressure research project, our aim has been to produce youth-centred knowledge of the current “youth mental health crisis,” a pressing issue in media and political discussions. These discussions are often adult-centric and largely overlook young people’s own perspectives. Our presentation delves into the analysis of our fieldwork conducted in Autumn 2024 with over 150 young people/young adults aged 15-34. These workshops utilized art-based, creative, and participatory methods under the umbrella of our understanding of youth research imagination. This approach enables researchers to build trustful relationships with young people, allowing them to participate in the study in meaningful and convivial ways. The goal is to create better and deeper research knowledge by fostering environments where young people feel comfortable sharing their views. In line with the symposium’s theme, we will explore how imagination can be utilized to enhance a thorough understanding of young people’s relationships to mental health issues as part of their multifaceted everyday lives. Our presentation will engage in a self-reflexive analysis of our endeavour, critically examining the kind of knowledge we were able to produce. We will share insights from our fieldwork, discuss the challenges and opportunities encountered, and highlight the value of our approach in engaging young participants. By reflecting on our research journey, we aim to make visible the meaning and impact of youth research imagination on the knowledge produced in the study.
Bios of the key note speakers
Dr. Shane Blackman, Professor of Cultural Studies, at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He gained a PhD in Sociology on an ESRC scholarship awarded a PhD (1990) at the Institute of Education, University of London, supervised by Professor Basil Bernstein and Professor Phil Cohen. He is an editor of the International Journal of Youth Studies and an editor of YOUNG: the Nordic Journal of Youth Research. Shane is also a member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): Peer Review College and the Research Council of Finland. His books include: Chilling Out: the cultural politics of substance consumption, youth and drug policy, 2004; ’The Subcultural Imagination: Theory, Research and Reflexivity in Contemporary Youth Cultures,’ 2016, with Michelle Kempson, and Youth Marginality in Britain: contemporary studies of austerity, 2017 with Ruth Rogers and is most recent book is Popular Music Ethnographies: practice, place, identity, with Raine, S., McPherson, R. and Taylor, I. 2025.
Dr. Päivi Honkatukia, Professor of Youth Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. She has led extensive research projects on youth and has longstanding experience in an interdisciplinary domain incorporating the social sciences, gender studies, socio-legal studies, and youth research. Her research areas have included social control as a gendered, racialised and intersectional phenomenon and youth question, young people’s positionings and experiences of the criminal justice system as victims and perpetrators, gendered and sexual violence as young people’s experiences, young people’s societal participation as part of their sustainable well-being.
Dr. Jenni Kallio, Postdoctoral research fellow in Youth Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. She works as a researcher in Under Pressure research project that focuses on youth mental health issues from the societal perspective. Her research interests include marginalized youth, lived citizenship, young adults, youth well-being and societal participation, as well as youth-centred methods and ethics in researching youth.
Dr. Sanna Ryynänen, University lecturer of Social Pedagogy, University of Eastern Finland. She is also a researcher member of Saimaan Teatteri, an itinerant professional theatre group dedicated to developing and researching contemporary popular theatre, and has collaborated extensively within the field of theatre and performance arts. She has a longstanding interest in and experience with creative, arts-based, and participatory research methods and their development. In 2021, she co-edited Tutkiva mielikuvitus (Investigative Imagination), a textbook on creative, participatory, and action-oriented research methods in social sciences.
Dr. Susanna Ågren, Postdoctoral research fellow in Youth Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. She works as a researcher in Under Pressure research project focusing on young people’s mental health issues from the societal perspective. Her research interests are young people’s well-being and societal belonging, youth related issues regarding the labour market and vocational education, young adulthood and youth-centred methods and research ethics.