Johanna Nurmi
johnurm@utu.fi +358 29 450 4689 +358 50 472 4719 Assistentinkatu 7 Turku |
medical sociology, health perceptions, criticism of biomedicine, vaccination attitudes, 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 on the field of health sociology, focusing on vaccine refusal and hesitancy, the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and food.
I have worked as part of the project Tracking the Therapeutic - Ethnographies of Wellbeing, Politics and Inequality (Academy of Finland 2015-2019, PI Suvi Salmenniemi), and Microbial Lives - Practices of New Human-Microbial Cultures (Kone Foundation 2019-2022, PI Salla Sariola). In 2019-2020, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University, in the project Nutrition, Expertise and Media (Academy of Finland, PI Pia Jallinoja) concerning the public debate on food and health.
I co-lead a research project called Health, knowledge and expertise (Emil Aaltonen foundation 2018-2021) together with Pia Vuolanto. This project analyzed the criticism of biomedicine related to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and vaccine-criticism in Finland. We combined sociological and historical perspectives, responding to the social and political need to understand these phenomena and the criticism of biomedical expertise in general as processes that are deeply historical and cultural.
I am interested in health-related expertise and its contestations concerning vaccines, CAM, nutrition, and microbes.
Vaccination
I study parental reasons for contesting and refusing vaccination, as well as the relationships that vaccine-hesitant parents form with medicine, healtcare, public health authorities, and expert knowledge. I also analyze the negotiations and conflicts between parents and healthcare workers in child health clinics. I am also interested in how vaccination is contested within the healthcare system.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
In the Health, knowledge and expertise -project, we examined the criticism of biomedicine related to vaccines and CAM since the early 1900s. This criticism is voiced from within as well as outside of the medical field. The project combined sociological and historical research, acknowledging that the criticism of biomedicine is not just a momentary phenomenon, but deeply rooted in the modern society.
Microbes
I am also interested in how lay citizens using alternative health practices apply the latest information provided by microbiological research in how they optimize "natural" health and immunity. In this phenomenon, food and nutrition are often central.
- Miten koulusurmia muisteltiin – ja mistä vaiettiin? (2017)
- Politiikasta.fi
- Rokotekriittisyyden monet muodot (2017)
- AntroBlogi
- Shared Experiences of Mass Shootings: A Comparative Perspective on the Aftermath (2017) Nurmi Johanna
- Terapeuttista jälittämässä (2017)
- Sosioblogi
- Warum Mindfulness, Life Coaching und Self-Help an Popularität gewinnen: Der Workshop "Travelling and Transforming Therapeutics“ nahm therapeutische Praktiken global unter die Lupe. (2017)
- Medizinethnologie
- Affected or Detached? – Gendered Emotional Reactions to School Shootings (2014)
- Affilia
- Coping with Tragedy, Reacting to an Event: The Case of the Jokela School Shooting in Finland (2014)
- Young
- Let Go and Remember. – How Finnish Communities Experienced and Memorialized School Shootings (2014) Nurmi Johanna
- Massaväkivallan yhteisölliset seuraukset (2014)
- Yhteiskuntapolitiikka
- Expressions and Projections of Evil in Mass Violence – Coping after a Violent Tragedy. (2013)
- Deviant Behavior
- Jokela – Social Roots of a School Shooting Tragedy in Finland (2013) School Shootings: International Research, Case Studies and Concepts for Prevention Oksanen A, Nurmi J, Vuori M, Räsänen P
- Assessing the Relationship between Fear of Crime and Social Solidarity (2012)
- Research papers in economic sociology
- Jokela and Kauhajoki : Experiencing School Shootings in a Nordic Welfare Society (2012) Handbook of critical incident analysis Räsänen Pekka, Oksanen Atte, Nurmi Johanna
- Making Sense of School Shootings : Comparing Local Narratives of Solidarity and Conflict in Finland (2012)
- Traumatology
- The Norm of Solidarity : Experiencing Negative Aspects of Community Life after a School Shooting Tragedy (2012)
- Journal of Social Work
- Pahuus ja väkivallan käsittelemisen ongelma Jokelan ja Kauhajoen koulusurmien jälkeen (2011)
- Janus: sosiaalipolitiikan ja sosiaalityön tutkimuksen aikakauslehti
- Pelon ja turvattomuuden umpikuja Jokelan ja Kauhajoen koulusurmien jälkeen (2011) Toiminnallisia loukkuja: Hyvinvointi ja eriarvoisuus yhteiskunnassa Vuori Miika, Oksanen Atte, Nurmi Johanna, Räsänen Pekka
- Politiikkaprosessi ja aselainsäädännön uudistaminen Jokelan ja Kauhajoen koulusurmien jälkeen (2011) Politiikan polut ja hyvinvointivaltion muutos Lindström Kauri, Räsänen Pekka, Oksanen Atte, Nurmi Johanna
- Jokelan ja Kauhajoen asukkaiden arviot koulusurmien yhteiskunnallisista syistä (2010)
- Sosiologia
- Sukupuoli tanssii ravintolassa (2010) Nurmi J