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concepta

International Research School in Conceptual History and Political Thought

 

Jussi Kurunmäki

Dr. Soc. Sc. Jussi Kurunmäki is a political scientist working at the Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. His main fields of interest include the history of political ideas, conceptual history, and political rhetoric, with special focus on parliamentary democratisation. His current research project, financed by Swedish Research Council (VR), is entitled “Universal Suffrage and Democracy in Finland and Sweden: Rhythms of Parliamentary Democratisation in an International Context.” Kurunmäki is also a member of the research project “The Politics of Dissensus. Parliamentarism, Rhetoric and Conceptual History”, funded by Professor Kari Palonen’s Academy of Finland Professorship.

In his research projects Kurunmäki studies the national prerequisites and temporal aspects of modern democracy, dealing with the uses of the concept of nation in constitution-making processes and parliamentary reforms as well as in debates over the breakthrough and crisis of democracy.

Kurunmäki earned his doctoral degree in political science from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2000. His dissertation Representation, Nation and Time: The Political Rhetoric of the 1866 Parliamentary Reform in Sweden examined conceptual commitments in the Swedish debate within a European context. A special focus in the dissertation was on the uses of the concept of national representation, as formulated during the French Revolution. Kurunmäki is one of the editors of the Finnish anthology of conceptual history Käsitteet liikkessä (Concepts in Motion) (2003). He has worked as an Academy of Finland post-doc fellow (2005-2007). He was also the leader of the project “Democratisation and the Welfare State as Political Struggles in Finland and Sweden,” funded by Kone Foundation (2004-2006). He is one of the editors of a forthcoming anthology on Nordic democracy.

Besides being a member of the Concepta Board, Kurunmäki is a member of the History of Political and Social Concepts Group (HPSCG). He is also a member of the Nordic Centre of Excellence “The Nordic Welfare State – Historical Foundations and Future Challenges” (NordWel), University of Helsinki.

His publications include:

Monographs and anthologies:

Representation, Nation and Time: The Political Rhetoric of the 1866 Parliamentary Reform in Sweden. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. (2000) (Doctoral dissertation)

Jussi Kurunmäki & Kari Palonen (eds): Die Zeit, Geschichte und Politik; Time, History and Politics: A Nordic Festschrift für Reinhart Koselleck. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. (2003)

Matti Hyvärinen, Jussi Kurunmäki, Kari Palonen, Tuija Pulkkinen & Henrik Stenius (eds): Käsitteet liikkeessä. Suomen poliittisen kulttuurin käsitehistoria (Concepts in Motion. The Conceptual History of Finnish Political Culture), Tampere: Vastapaino. (2003)

Articles:

”Käsitehistoria. Näkökulma historian poliittisuuteen ja poliittisen kielen historiallisuuteen” (Conceptual history. A perspective on the political character of history and historical character of politics). Politiikka 2/2001.

”Redescribing the Political Past. National rhetoric in the Swedish debate concerning the Parliamentary Reform of 1866. Finnish Yearbook of Political Thought 7/2003.

The Reception of Political Concepts in the Wake of Finnish Parliamentary Life in the 1860s. In Kurunmäki & Palonen (eds): Die Zeit, Geschichte und Politik; Time, History and Politics: A Nordic Festschrift für Reinhart Koselleck. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. (2003)

 “A parliament for the unity of the people: On the rhetoric of legitimisation in the debate over Finnish parliamentary reform in 1906”, in Lars-Folke Landgrén and Pirkko Hautamäki (eds): People, Citizen, Nation. Helsinki: Renvall Institute (2005).

“Begreppshistoria” (Conceptual history), in Göran Bergström & Kristina Boréus (eds): Textens mening och makt. Metodbok i samhällsvetenskaplig textanalys. Lund: Studentlitteratur. (2005).

”Kan en nation byggas på politisk vilja? Om debatten mellan J. V. Snellman och August Schauman 1859-1860”, (Can a nation be founded on political will? On the debate between J. V. Snellman and August Schauman 1859-1860), Historisk Tidskrift för Finland 2/2007.

“The Breakthrough of Universal Suffrage in Finland, 1905-1906”, in Kari Palonen, Tuija Pulkkinen & Jose Maria Rosales (eds): Ashgate Research Companion to the Politics of Democratization in Europe: Concepts and Histories, London: Ashgate. (2008).
 
“Different styles of parliamentary democratisation in Finland and Sweden: An analysis of two debates over parliamentary reform in 1906,” in Suvi Soininen & Tapani Turkka (eds): The Parliamentary Style of Politics, Helsinki: Finnish Political Science Association. (2008).

Links:

Department of Political Science, Stockholm University:
http://www.statsvet.su.se/index.htm

Swedish Research Council: http://www.vr.se/huvudmeny/forskningvistodjer/humanioraochsamhallsvetens...

Centre for Nordic Studies, University of Helsinki:
http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/nordic/english/index.html

Professor Kari Palonen’s Academy of Finland Professorship:
http://www.jyu.fi/ytk/laitokset/yfi/en/research/projects/dissensus