Culture consists of symbols, ideas, and forms of praxis. Culture may act as an agent of preservation and legitimacy, but may also further social change. Culture may drive people apart or bring them together. At ISS, we study culture in a wide-range of social contexts, including the relationship between culture and politics.
Political participation can be directed towards a formal political sphere but may also be understood as inclusion and influence in a broader sense. This can be, for example, as participation in the public debate, in specific subcultures, through cultural production and art, social movements or local governance. Both as sociologists and as human geographers, we primarily study politics in this wider sense.
Among our key topics of study are:
- Forms of cultural expression and meaning-making practices, and how identities are constructed, managed and used.
- The interaction between power relations and symbols, ideas, material cultures, and social praxis.
- Social movements, sub-cultures, religion.
- Art, literature and media.
- Various forms of activism, professional organizations, democratic participation, and collective action.
We use a variety of methods, including interviews, digital methods, ethnographic observation, text- and document analysis, rhetoric and discourse analysis, as well as demographic approaches.
Researchers
Alexi Gugushvili
Jan Grue
Arnfinn Haagensen Midtbøen
Katrine Fangen
Mette Andersson
Anne Krogstad
Jemima Garcia-Godos Naveda
Grete Brochmann
Cathrine Holst
Haldor Byrkjeflot
Inger Furseth
Marianne Nordli Hansen
Manjana Milkoreit
Karoline Blix Hjelle
Kristian Stokke
Manes Elias Weisskircher
Lars Klemsdal
Sabina Tica
Andrea Joslyn Nightingale