Johanna Nurmi
 

    • University Lecturer, 
    Sociology (Department of Social Research)


johnurm@utu.fi

+358 29 450 4689

+358 50 472 4719

Assistentinkatu 7

Turku


: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9782-8733

Research Project: Youth in Polycrisis

ResearchGate

Crises; polycrisis; young people; sociology of health; contested health topics; expertise; vaccine hesitancy; complementary and alternative medicine (CAM); ethnographic research

In my doctoral dissertation (2014, University of Turku), I studied the recovery processes of two Finnish communities after school shootings. I have also published a book "Shared Experiences of Mass Shootings" (Routledge) on the topic. 


After my dissertation, I have done research in the field of sociology of health. My research topics have included vaccine hesitancy, the use of alternative treatments, human–microbe relations related to alternative health conceptions, and health influencers on social media. In my postdoctoral research on vaccine hesitancy, I collected data through ethnographic interviews, expert interviews, online ethnography, and visual ethnography.


Together with Pia Vuolanto, I was co-PI of a research project called "Health, knowledge and expertise" (Emil Aaltonen foundation 2018-2021). Using historical and sociological approaches, the project examined critiques of medicine associated with vaccine scepticism and alternative therapies among citizens and healthcare professionals.


I have participated in several research projects:  

- EU Horizon 2020 project VAX-TRUST, which investigated vaccine confidence in seven EU countries

- "Nutrition, Expertise and Media" (Academy of Finland, PI Pia Jallinoja), a project concerning the public debate on food and health

-  "Tracking the Therapeutic - Ethnographies of Wellbeing, Politics and Inequality" (Academy of Finland 2015-2019, PI Suvi Salmenniemi)

-  "Microbial Lives - Practices of New Human-Microbial Cultures" (Kone Foundation 2019-2022, PI Salla Sariola)



My main research interests include contested health topics and expertise, societal crises, and collective experiences.

I am interested in crises and the political and contested nature of their consequences and attempted solutions. I also study health-related expertise and its contestations. In my work, a focus on the analysis of lived experience combines these two lines of research.

Currently, I lead a research project called "Youth in Polycrisis" (2025–2029), funded by Kone Foundation. The project examines young people’s experiences of living in a time of polycrisis across Global South and Global North contexts, analysing how young people in Finland and Morocco experience the intersections of multiple crises in everyday life. 








  
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Last updated on 31/03/2026 05:24:13 PM