“Amor Tellus: For a Material Culture of Care“. HannahArendt.net 11(1), pp.96–114. OPEN ACCESS.

Abstract. This article addresses the politics of ecological reconstruction in the Anthropocene by drawing from the thought of Hannah Arendt. The article particularly elaborates a notion of ‘material culture of care’ as a modality of mediating human interactions with non-human nature. Expanding on commentaries on the Arendtian ‘care for the world’, I read Arendt’s two essays on culture from the perspective of human/nature relationship. I suggest her commentary on the Roman notion of colere, cultivating nature, can offer us a notion of care that is embedded in the material interdependencies in the ‘web of life’. The essay also analyzes the modern concept of nature as an impediment for exercising such care, and discusses practices of tending and cultivating nature in the context of the city.

“The Value of the Surface: Reappreciating Embodiment, Labor, and Necessity in Arendt’s Political Thought”. Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory 4(2), pp. 263–283. OPEN ACCESS.

Abstract. Through an unorthodox reading of Hannah Arendt, this article argues that her political thought contains unacknowledged resources for conceptualizing embodiment in politics, and in relation to the economy, physical needs, and appearance. In contrast to the way she is typically read, this essay develops an affirmative account of embodiment in Arendt’s work. Arendt not only recognizes the role of the appearing body in action but also underscores the importance of labor and necessity for a human sense of reality. Throughout her oeuvre, she presents a historical analysis of the rise of a functionalist, processual understanding of life under capitalist modernity. She also develops an alternative, nonfunctionalist framing of living bodies, highlighting a gratitude for “given” aspects of existence and the value of the bodily surface as a sentient interface between embodied needs and the common world. The article tracks the development of these reflections in Arendt’s engagements with Karl Marx, Simone Weil, and Adolf Portmann.

“Genealogy of Experiential Frames: Methodological Notes on Arendt” (Genealogy) – Open Access New Perspectives 26(3), pp. 31–55. OPEN ACCESS.

Abstract. This article seeks to add a new theoretical voice to the tradition of genealogical inquiry in political theory and beyond by offering a re-reading of the thought of Hannah Arendt. Going beyond the letter of her thought, in this article I propose that placing Arendt in the genealogical tradition of inquiry (particularly its Foucauldian strand) helps to make sense of what she was “up to” when she turned to history in her work, especially in the analysis of totalitarianism and the account of modernity presented in The Human Condition. I will specifically highlight the historical emergence of “process-thinking” that Arendt traces across her writings. The article seeks to sketch a unique approach to genealogical inquiry that can be taken up by anyone interested in critical analysis of our present age and its politics. Towards the end of the essay, I elaborate this approach methodologically by making a reference to frame analysis. Thus, I articulate a “genealogical frame analysis”, an inquiry into historical emergence of various metaphors and frames that organize our experience of the world. I also highlight the centrality of events for Arendt’s genealogy, as well as its role in a broader set of world-building practices.

“Labor as Action: The Human Condition in the Anthropocene“. Research in Phenomenology 50(2), pp.240–260. [access the full text here]

Abstract. The Anthropocene has become an umbrella term for the disastrous transgression of ecological safety boundaries by human societies. The impact of this new reality is yet to be fully registered by political theorists. In an attempt to recalibrate the categories of political thought, this article brings Hannah Arendt’s framework of The Human Condition (labor, work, action) into the gravitational pull of the Anthropocene. It elaborates the historical emergence of our capacity to “act in the mode of laboring” during fossil-fueled capitalist modernity, a form of agency relating to our collectively organized laboring processes reminiscent of the capacity of modern sciences to “act into nature” discussed by Arendt. I argue that once read from an energy/ecology-centric perspective, The Human Condition can help us make sense of the Anthropocene predicament, and rethink the modes of collectively organizing the activities of labor, work, and action.

“Careless Speech: Conceptualizing Post-Truth Politics”. New Perspectives 26(3), pp. 31–55. OPEN ACCESS.

ABSTRACT. I elaborate a concept of post-truth politics by comparing facts to public infrastructure, which I understand in an Arendtian fashion: as a condition that both limits and enables opinionated debate. I put forward an understanding of post-truth as a two-sided process brought about by mutually dependent structural factors contributing to the irrelevance of factual truths and a particular political style labelled careless speech. I distinguish post-truth and careless speech from ‘bullshit’, and discuss practices of conveying truth in the public sphere.

“Koronakriisi, informaatio, ja resilienssipolitiikka” (yhdessä Tapio Juntusen kanssa). Kosmopolis 50(2) [OPEN ACCESS]

Abstrakti. Artikkelissa koronakriisin hoitoa Suomessa arvioidaan resilienssikirjallisuuden käsitteiden avulla. Muotoilemme ”kokonaisresilienssin” viitekehyksen, jota voidaan soveltaa kriisipolitiikan arviointiin. Koronakriisin hoidon ensimmäisten kuukausien aikana politiikkatoimet ovat keskittyneet vahvasti yhteiskunnan välittömään iskunkestävyyteen. Keskustelu pidemmän aikanvälin mukautuvasta oppimisesta on toistaiseksi ollut vähäistä.

“The Janus Face of Political Experience”. Arendt Studies 2.

ABSTRACT. Arendt’s notion of experience can contribute in important ways to the contemporary debates in political and feminist theory. However, there is a lack of clear conceptual understanding of her unique approach to experience and its role in political thought. Drawing from lecture materials, the article puts forward a definition of experience that revolves around vicariousness and the link between action, ‘suffering’, and enduring. It emphasizes the role of poetic and metaphoric re-experiencing of events beyond our conscious control. I argue that this concept poses an important challenge to the different ways experience is approached in contemporary political and feminist theory.

“Visualizing Political Thought on the Screen: A Dialogue between von Trotta’s Hannah Arendt and Its Protagonist” (with Frank Möller). Journal for Cultural Research 21 (2).

Abstract. The article analyses Margarethe von Trotta’s film Hannah Arendt: The Woman Who Saw Banality in Evil through its protagonist’s own writings on visual culture, visibility and invisibility in the context of political thinking. We assess to which extent the film, and cinema in general, is able to provoke political thought.

“Political Action Beyond Resistance: Arendt and Revolutionary Spirit in Egypt”. Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History, and Feminist Theory 19(2).

Abstract. The article examines what it calls the “politics-as-resistance” frame in contemporary political theory, originating in the works of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. I argue that Arendt’s “world-centric” approach can illuminate aspects of political experience that remain dimmed in the more subject-oriented politics-as-resistance frame. I particularly focus on the austere notion of freedom in politics-as-resistance, its overly process-oriented presentation of political temporality, underdeveloped approach to institutions, and insufficient exploration of the joyful end of the affective register of action. In the last part of the article, the tragedy of the Egyptian 2011 revolution is discussed as an illustration of the arguments.

“Invisible Streams: Process-thinking in Arendt”. European Journal of Social Theory 19(4).

Abstract. For Arendt, some of the most distinctive features of the modern age derived from the adoption of a process-imaginary in science, history, and administration. This article examines the ‘process-frame’ through Arendt’s criticism of imperialism, economy, and the biologization of politics. It also distinguishes process-thinking from the processes initiated by political action proper. I emphasize action as a world-building activity – something capable of establishing a relatively stable area of the common world by initiating processes of its own. I also highlight the importance of cultivating ways of thinking and perceiving particular acts as meaningfully independent of all-embracing processes.

“Sopeutuva yhteiskunta ja resilienssi: turvallisuuspoliittinen analyysi” (with Tapio Juntunen) Politiikka 58(3).

Abstract (article in Finnish). The critical knowledge production around the concept of resilience has ended up in an impasse produced by the incompatible perspectives on resilience either as a form of governmentality or an ideal type that promises individual/community emancipation and/or decentralization of power. To open up this analytical deadlock we suggest that the discussion concerning resilience should be filtered, firstly, through the basic analytical concepts of security studies and, secondly, based on this first move, through the lenses of political theory.

”Tentative Lessons of Experience: Arendt, Essayism, and ‘the Social’ Reconsidered”. Political Theory 42(5).

Abstract. The article addresses the role of the essay in Hannah Arendt’s theorizing. By paying attention to Arendt’s style, we are better able to draw the full conclusions from the well-known fact that she was not a system-builder but took her bearings from concrete experiences. I argue that Arendt’s understanding of ‘experience’ cannot be reduced to her personal experiences, but must be read against the background of the common world. A crucial dimension in the incorporation of experiences into Arendt’s thought is her essayistic style of writing. The essay, as an experimental and tentative platform, provides an indispensable angle to Arendt’s work—even though often overshadowed by “classical” or “narrative” readings.

”Resilience, Security, and the Politics of Processes” (with Tapio Juntunen). Resilience: International Policies, Practices, and Discourses 2(3).

Abstract. In dialogue with some of the recent critiques of resilience, predominantly leaning on biopolitics or neoliberal governmentality, this article develops an Arendtian reading of resilience as a temporal regime of processuality. Originating from life sciences such as ecology and complexity thinking, the increasingly malleable resilience discourse privileges the functioning of societal life processes over political action and human artifice. This ‘rule of nobody’ is in danger of suffocating the concept of public space, so crucial for politics proper. As a step out , it is suggested the sense of being able to change the world through collective political action should be revitalised.

”Tervetulleita ei minnekään: Hannah Arendt ja valtiottomuuden kiroukset”. Kosmopolis: rauhan-, konfliktin-, ja maailmanpolitiikan tutkimuksen aikakauslehti 42(1). (Welcomed nowhere: H.A. and the curses of statelessness”).

Abstrakti. Artikkeli tarkastelee Hannah Arendtin analyysia valtiottomuudesta suhteessa hänen näkemykseensä politiikan teorian kokemuksellisesta ja kokeilullisesta luonteesta. Käyden läpi Arendtin analyysia valtiottomuudesta ja kansallisvaltion historiasta sekä siihen liittyvästä hallintotavasta artikkeli korjaa tiettyjä virhetulkintoja Arendtin näkemyksistä ja osoittaa, millä tavoin arendtilainen näkökulma voi täydentää pakolaisuudesta käytyä akateemista nykykeskustelua.

“Platforms of Post-Truth: Outlines of a Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere“. In Stephen McGlinchey, Leo S.F. Lin, Zeynep Selin Balci, and Patrick Vernon (eds.), Global Politics in a Post-Truth Age. E-International Relations. [OPEN ACCESS]

”From Spiritual Defense to Robust Resilience: A Critical History of Finnish Compherensive Security Model”. In: Sebastian Larsson and Mark Rhinard (eds.), A Nordic Model for Societal Security? Convergence and Divergence. London: Routledge. [OPEN ACCESS]

“Tunnustus Jacques Rancièren poliittisessa filosofiassa” (yhdessä Lauri Lahikaisen kanssa). Teoksessa Onni Hirvonen (toim.), Tunnustuksen filosofia ja politiikka. Helsinki: SKS.

“Pedagogies of Hopefulness and Thoughtfulness: The Social-Political Role of Higher Education in Contemporary Societies“. In Paul Gibbs and Andrew Peterson (eds.), Higher Education and Hope: Institutional, Pedagogical and Personal Possibilities. New York: Palgrave.

“Hannah Arendt ja ‘yhteiskunnan’ synty” (with Mika Ojakangas). In Ilkka Kauppinen ym. (toim.), 1900-luvun saksalainen yhteiskuntateoria. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.

“The politics of austerity and entrepreneurialism: reflections on the role of the humanities” (with Esko Harni). In Jon Nixon (ed.) Higher Education in an Age of Austerity: Looking to Europe. London: Bloomsbury.

“From ‘Event’ to ‘Process’: The EU and the Arab Spring”. In: Donatella della Porta – Alice Mattoni (eds.), Spreading Protest: Social Movements in Times of Crisis. Paris: ECPR Press.

Abstract. The chapter uses frame analysis to understand the global repercussions of the Arab Spring. It critically examines the policy reactions of the European Union. Special attention is paid to the ways in which the EU as a key global actor sought to manage the flow of external events in order to fortify its self-image and thus its power interests: the frames utilised by the EU sought to downplay the ‘eventful’ nature of the Arab Spring and to present those events as a continuation of a general process of transformation to liberal democracy. The protests, in other words, were normalised by equating them with other transitions, as in the so-called colour revolutions.

(2017) ”Totalitaarinen valemaailma ja suuri valhe”. In: Korvela – Vuorelma  (ed.), Puhun niin totta kuin osaan – Politiikka faktojen jälkeen. Jyväskylä: Docendo.

“Arendt ja menneen elävöittäminen ajattelussa”. In: Muisti (Memory), ed. Jani Hakkarainen et al. Tampere: Tampere University Press.  (“Arendt and the Revitalization of the Past in Thought”).

”In the Present Tense: Contemporary Engagements with Hannah Arendt” (with Charles Barbour). Philosophy Today 62(2), pp. 299–317.

Abstract. In this introductory essay to a special issue edited by us, “Arendt in the Present”, we ponder the strange contemporaneity of Arendt’s work, her striking ability to speak to current concerns and experiences, despite her own insistence of remaining engaged with the events of her time. We argue that the “third wave” of Arendt scholarship, building on new theoretical insights and careful archival research has opened many new perspectives to her thought. Arendt scholarship has overcome the tendency to assign her a label, while also avoiding the canonization of “Saint Arendt”. There is no party line, no “Arendtism”, to tow. What makes Arendt’s thought so versatile is indeed the fact that it does not call for application but a thoughtful attending to the “sense of the real” and serious facing of our newest political experiences.

“Defining Post-truth: Structures, Agents, and Styles”. E-International Relations.

Abstact. This article seeks to initiate conceptual debate on post-truth so as to pave the way for empirical analysis of the phenomenon. I suggest that facts have a limited but indispensable role to play in pluralistic politics, comparable to material environment that both enables and limits democratic debate in important ways. I put forward an understanding of post-truth as a two-pronged process in which structures and agents mutually depend on and amplify each other. From an agential point of view, post-truth coincides with what I call ‘careless speech’. Structurally, it relates to erosion of the common world due to the increasing irrelevance of factual truth in public discourse, which can be traced to changes in the media-economy-politics complex.

“Kirja-arvostelu: Antto Vihma, Jarno Hartikainen, Hannu-Pekka Ikäheimo ja Olli Seuri, Totuuden jälkeen. Miten media selviää algoritmien ja paskapuheen aikana.” Politiikka 61(2), ss.167-173.

“Vallankumouksen filosofiaa nykyajassa”.  Niin & näin 4/15. (“Philosophies of Revolution Today”).

“Totalitarismin syntyä jäljittämässä”. Review of the Finnish translation of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. Tiede & Edistys 4/2013.

”Elämän ja kuoleman politiikka”. Niin & näin 1/13. A report on Powers of Life and Death: Biopolitics Beyond Foucault conference in Helsinki.

• POLITIIKASTA.FI -artikkelit:
• “Onko sosiaalinen media alusta totuudenjälkeisyydelle?“. Politiikasta.fi (“Is social media a platform for post-truth?”).
• “Politiikan faktoista on syytäkin olla huolissaan“. Politiikasta.fi. (“It is justified to be worried about facts in politics”).
• “Arabikevään tragediasta”. Politiikasta.fi. . (“On the Tragedy of the Arab Spring”).

Kokonaisresilienssi ja turvallisuus: tasot, prosessit ja arviointi (with Tapio Juntunen, Harri Mikkola, Juha Käpylä, Harri Gustafsberg, Markku Nyman, Tiina Rättilä, Sirpa Virta, and Johanna Liljeroos). Valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminnan julkaisusarja 17/2019. Helsinki: Valtioneuvoston kanslia.

“Resilienssi avaimena laaja-alaiseen kokonaisturvallisuuteen: haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia” (with Tapio Juntunen). Valtioneuvoston selvitys- ja tutkimustoiminta, Policy Brief 25/2018. Helsinki: Valtioneuvoston Kanslia.

FAKTABAARI -yhteistyö

Hyvönen, A-E – (2018), ”Faktantarkistus Suomessa: Oppeja vuoden 2018 presidentinvaaleista” (with Severi Hämäri). Helsinki: Faktabaari. (Fact-checking in Finland: Lessons from the 2018 Presidential Elections)

“Kokemuksellinen tarina on vastustuskykyinen faktantarkistukselle” (with Maria Mäkelä and Samuli Björninen). Helsinki: Faktabaari. (Experiential Stories are Immune to Fact-Checking)

”Experience as an Anchor for Thinking”. Hannah Arendt Center Blog.

”Kokemus, menneisyys, ja poliittinen ajattelu”. Alusta: Yhteiskunta- ja kulttuuritieteiden verkkolehti. ”Experience, the Past, and Political Thought”.

”Arendt, Hannah”. Logos / filosofia.fi. Encyclopedia article (in Finnish).

“Todellisuudesta toivon kulttuuriin – Richard Rortyn pragmatismin moninaisuus”. Paatos 1/2011. (”From Reality to the Culture of Hope – The Plurality of Richard Rorty’s Pragmatism”).

“Resilienssi“. Ajatuksia yhteiskunnasta podcast. Kalevi Sorsa säätiö (yhdessä Eija Meriläisen ja Samuli Sinisalon kanssa).