Research profile

The research profile of the Swedish School of Social Science combines topics such as Nordic welfare and ethnic relations with innovative, multidisciplinary approaches. The research profile responds to the new challenges of the Nordic welfare model by combining expertise from the many research areas of the School to form a stimulating environment for research and teaching.

The School’s research is primarily carried out in five thematic networks which link expertise from the School’s various fields. The six fields – journalism and communication, legal studies, social work and social policy, sociology, social psychology and political science and administration – form the basis of the research conducted in the networks.

More information about the research at the School can be found in the Research Portal.

Soc&kom also participates in research networks, research centres and other forms of cooperation. One of the most recent examples is INEQ - Helsinki Inequality Initiative, which brings together researchers from several University of Helsinki faculties.

Teaching is research-based, which means that these research areas are the foundation of all teaching at the Swedish School of Social Science.

CEREN: Ethnic Relations, Migration and Belonging

Welfare, Values and Interventions

Journalism, Communication and Participation

Group Relations, Gender and Identity

Democracy, Political Participation and Institutional Change

CEREN: Ethnic Relations, Migration and Belonging

The research covers a broad spectrum of issues related to the field of ethnic relations and nationalism, including migration, integration, diversity and language minorities.

The network is maintained by The Center for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism, CEREN. Read more about CEREN and current research projects on CEREN's webpage.

Welfare, Values and Interventions

The network conducts multidisciplinary research on people’s welfare, the development and legitimacy of the Nordic welfare policy, as well as the founding values of welfare while analysing the mechanisms behind various forms of inequality as well as solution models and intervention options in the different sectors of welfare.

Ongoing research projects involve the combating of inequality in a time of austerity, changes in the concept of public health, early support for parents, citizenship practices in the local welfare state, rehabilitation services for immigrant families, as well as the favourable and unfavourable impacts of IT in health care.

Journalism, Communication and Participation

The network conducts research on the changing character of journalism, media and communication. A particular focus is on how digitalization influences the media landscape and journalistic practices, and what kinds of new skill demands and journalistic innovations come with it. The research also studies how ongoing developments impact the need and practices to shape our world through various forms of communication – in the media, in companies and organisations, and in interpersonal everyday communication.

Group Relations, Gender and Identity

The network conducts multidisciplinary research on the social living conditions of individuals, identities, various groups and societies. The research seeks to identify patterns in the behaviour of individuals, understand how groups and societies are constructed, and discover how power works in society. Gender is examined from a critical perspective in relation to other power structures and categories, such as sexuality, ethnicity, race, disability, class and age. The social and historical processes which shape Nordic concepts, practices and the structural framework for identity, gender and other systems are analysed through comparison of the Nordic and global perspectives.

Ongoing research features the discourse analysis of journalistic practices that support gender structures, projects on innovation and everyday resistance as well as youth research.

Democracy, Political Participation and Institutional Change

The network analyses how politics is developed and shaped in the tension between the political engagement and participation of the citizenry and constantly changing public institutions. A particular focus is on how social and institutional changes impact the values, attitudes and participation of individuals, but also on how new public forms of organisation and management, such as policy programmes, partnerships, networks, projects and local action groups, influence the results of policymaking.

Ongoing research projects feature connections between personal values, political attitudes and voting behaviour, the significance of new information and communication technologies for political participation and public organisation, project- and cooperation-based forms of organisation in public activities, as well as public authorities as agents of innovation and reform.