In English

POLIMA is an ethnographic research project that addresses the timely question of political alienation and the dissipation of political imagination, as well as the need for fundamental social change. Existing forms of democratic governance have been challenged from both the left and right and there is growing concern for lack of visions for alternative social formations. Yet at the same time, global challenges of climate emergency and seismic social inequalities compel us urgently to envisage new models for organizing our common life.

POLIMA responds to this call by exploring practices and spaces of political imagination in contemporary Finland. It aims at revitalising public political imagination as well as sociological imagination by identifying conceptual and empirical elements for alternative social formations and advancing social change towards more sustainable future. It combines political sociology and artistic research and maps political imagination of diverse groups and individuals in the fields of art, activism, media and education.

POLIMA builds on two hypotheses. First, it suggests that political imagination has not necessarily dissipated, but alternative political futures are imagined and promoted in a host of everyday spaces that people inhabit. Second, it suggests that forms of political engagement are in a profound transformation and find new arenas and expressions.