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(revised April 2014)

 ACADEMIC PORTFOLIO / CV

     J.P.Roos,   (born 30.4.1945 in Helsinki)

    Professor emeritus 2012-

     Studies

     Munkkiniemi High School (Helsinki) 1956-64
     Undergraduate examination 1964  
     MA in Social sciences, University of Helsinki 1966,  (magna cum laude)
     Licentiate in Social sciences, University of Helsinki 1968
     Master of Arts (Social Sciences), University of Chicago 1969
     Doctor of Social and Political Sciences, University of Helsinki 1973,
    (eximia cum laude approbatur)
    

     Scientific career

     Research assistant, University of Chicago 1968-69
     Assistant lecturer,   University of Helsinki 1969-71
     Associate professor          "      "             "       1971-74
      Academy of Finland Research Fellow 1974
     Visiting assistant professor, University of California, Los Angeles 1974
     Associate professor in Social Policy, University of Joensuu 1974-78
     Associate professor in Social Policy, University of Helsinki 1978-89
     Professor of Social Policy, University of Helsinki 1989-1993
     Visiting researcher, University of California, Santa Barbara 1992
     Professor of Sociology, University of Jyväskylä 1993
     Visiting professor of Sociology, Université de Genève 1993
     Maître de conferences invité, Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, 1993
     Professor of Social Policy, University of Helsinki 1993- 2012
     Chair of Department of Social Policy, 1994-98.
     Vice-Chair of Department, 2001-2002

     Vice president of European Sociological Association 2001-2003
     President of European Sociological Association 2003-2005 
     Head of Social Policy, Department of Social Sciences 2010-2012

     Head of Vastuu doctoral program in social policy 2010-2012

    Academic visitor, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford 2010-2011

     St John’s College Senior Room Member, Oxford 2011

     Research director, Academy of Finland, September 2012-February 2013

    Scientific activities

I am a strongly research-oriented and theoretical social scientist whose long career has been devoted to broad theoretical and conceptual development of the field with strong anchoring in real life. I am well-versed both in quantitative and qualitative research methods and have used both in my work extensively.
   
In addition to studies at the University of Helsinki (MA 66, Licentiate 68) I studied at the University of Chicago and received a MA in sociology there in 1969. While there, I studied mathematics, econometrics and graph theory (on which I wrote my MA thesis), as well as population research. In Finland, I pursued my studies in economics simultaneously with social policy.

After having published my PhD thesis in 1973 on "Welfare Theory and Social Policy", and having received a degree of Doctor of Political Sciences from the University of Helsinki, I have pursued my research activity in the following principal areas (in descending order from most recent to oldest, but note that I continue to be active in many of them):

1. Work in retirement

2. Evolutionary sociology
3.  The problem of generations, especially the baby boomers' generation (main research field)  and comparative study of generational transfers
4.  Life stories and autobiographies
5.  Life politics and life control
6.  Human rights in child protection
7.  The social impact of mobile telephones 
8.  Social change in Finland and social classes (using life story interviews and written autobiographies)
9.  Well-being and ways of life in Finland in relation to social policy and social structure
10. Social and economic planning

11. Welfare economics

Many of these orientations have had to do with comparative studies, often comparing capitalist and socialist (postsocialist) countries. Thus, I have directed research projects and participated in many international comparative research projects related to many of the above themes, and published many articles about all of them.
       In addition to my thesis, I have written several monographs, well over two hundred books and articles, not counting book reviews, newspaper articles or other shorter texts.
       In the 1980's and 1990's I worked with following themes: the comparative use of the life story approach, in particular in Russia, the Baltic and Northern Europe, and the question of men's life (and life stories) in Finland. I have participated in the organization of several autobiographical collections for the "ordinary people" and I use this material in my work. Also, I have been interested in the social consequences of mobile telephones.  In 1996-97, I have organized several autobiography collections also in Russia and the Baltic countries.
        My 1990's research projects relate to the comparison of autobiographies in Finland, Russia and the Baltic countries, both as a general question and related to sexual life. Here my main research questions were about generations, gender and sex. Another, related project is about the "baby boomers" generation which was an international research project. Here I worked together with Tommi Hoikkala, and Semi Purhonen with whom I have collaborated closely in the beginning of this millennium.  Our most recent joint publication is Kenen sukupolveen kuulut? (Whose generation do you belong to?, Gaudeamus 2008), published in August 2008.
       A second project is related to the theoretical discussion of life politics as a foundation for social policy, and in connection to the problem of life control in modern society, most recently in relation to evolutionary theory, and in opposition to the Foucaldian approach..
I direct (with Academy of Finland funding for the years 2006-2010 and 2011-2015) a Finnish GEN(erational)TRANS(fers)- project (with European ramifications, the results are comparable with parts of the SHARE survey) about the interactions between the baby boomer generation with both its parents and children. This is an important question, especially from the point of view of the so-called pension trap, as well as more generally in the framework of changes in life after retirement (for further information and publications, see blogs.helsinki.fi/gentrans). In 2011, our research group received funding (620 000 €) for the second round of GENTRANS, for the years 2012-2015. The survey has been carried out in March-April 2012.  The results are now available. We will also strive to coordinate our efforts with the SHARE research project, which has recently acquired an EU research infrastructure status.

       I am member of the International sociological association (ISA), Association internationale des sociologues de langue française (AISLF), American sociological association (ASA),  European Sociological Association (ESA), and International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQLS).  I have been in several research committees and their boards. I was elected to the ESA executive in 1997 and became Vice President in 1999, and President in 2003. I was member of the Board of the Research Committee "Biography and Society" of the ISA until 1998. The ESA has created a research network on European life stories, of which I was founder and chairman until 1999.  I have been invited as full member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences (Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia) in 1995.
       I have been the editor of Acta Sociologica, and of Yhteiskuntasuunnittelu (Social planning) and Tiede & Edistys as well as member of the editorial board and review editor of Life Stories/Récits de vie,  International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories, Social Indicators Research, and  Biography (contributing review editor) . I have been also member of the editorial board /advisory board/co-editor of following journals: Memory and Narrative, European Societies, and Sociology. (Journal of the British Sociological Association)
I am the Honorary Patron (suojelija) of the  Academy of Autobiography  (Elämäkerta-akatemia, est. 1999) in Kärsämäki, the purpose of which is to promote the production of autobiographical materials in Finland.  I am also founding member of the Estonian Autobiographical Society.
        I have translated and introduced Pierre Bourdieu's Questions de sociologie, into Finnish (Sosiologian kysymyksiä 1985).

     I have made study, research and lecture visits to USA, Soviet Union  (Russia), Poland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, India. I have been invited as visiting professor or lecturer at several universities around the world: UCLA (visiting lecturer), Brandeis, Montréal, CUNY, Edinburgh, Paris (Maison des sciences de l'homme, visiting professor), Geneva (visiting professor), Moscow (Academy of Sciences, Institute of sociology), University of Minnesota (visiting professor) among others. Also, I have functioned regularly as coordinator in sociological congresses and meetings.  I was responsible for the program of the ESA Congress in Helsinki 2001 as ESA Vice President.  The congress was the then largest in ESA history with 1300 participants. In the ESA Congress in Murcia, I became the first directly elected President of the ESA for the years 2003-2005.
I speak fluently Finnish, Swedish, English, French, and German. In addition I read Russian (with some difficulty).  In Finland I am officially classified as a Swedish speaker, but my identity is bilingual and Finnish is my mother tongue.

  Postgraduate teaching and guidance

        Since the 1970's I have directed a large number of doctoral students, functioned as opponent and preliminary examiner for approximately 2-4 doctoral students yearly, in different disciplines and  countries. I have acted as opponent abroad in a PhD thesis at the Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris (June 2006).  I have been opponent or pre-examiner for over 30 PhD theses, 8 of which abroad (U.K, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden). My latest PhD opponent function was in December 2013 in Linnéan University, Växjö.

        I have been co-director of the graduate school of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Helsinki (which is now part of Sovako), from its establishment in 1999 and have under my personal guidance several doctoral students, in addition to which I direct, since 1988, a postgraduate Seminar on life stories and autobiographies, from which there have emerged already over ten PhD theses as well as several licentiate theses. I have been instrumental in bringing the life story approach to Finnish sociology.

I was instigator and head (until my resignation as professor) of the Finnish Graduate School of Social Policy (VASTUU) which has 8 paid PhD student positions and was financed by the Academy of Finland for the years 2010-2013.

 Expert positions and honours

I have functioned as expert for several professor chair appointments, both in Finland and abroad.  In Finland I have taken part actively in public discussion and in expert positions.

I have also served as member of two Government Commissions: on Concentration of Economic Power in Finland (Keskittymiskomitea), and the commission on Hours of Work (Työaikakomitea). I was also chairman of the Finnish-Soviet sociological commission in the 1980's. 

  I have received the Knight's Cross of the First Class of the Order of the Finnish Lion in 2002, the University Distinguished Service Medal in 2005 and an honorary prize and letter of recognition from the Life History Academy in 2004. I received the "Eskon puumerkki", an honorary prize awarded by the Aleksis Kivi Society in 2009.

 I have been member of the Committee of Ethics of the Stakes (National Research Centre for Social Affairs and Health) and of the Committee of Ethics of THL (National Institute of Health and Welfare), from 2000-2009. 

   I am presently member of the Swedish Board of Social Affairs of the City of Helsinki. I have served as jury member (lautamies) of the Helsinki District court from 2000 to 2009. Between 2002 and 2007 I was Vice President of the Nordic Committee of Human Rights.

Personal Vision

 Arguably, my best known achievement is the typology of Finnish generations in the 20^th century, but I have also theorized sexual generations, intimate relationships and life stories in a way which have been useful for a large number of researchers. My introduction of Pierre Bourdieu to the Finnish sociological community has also been important. I have been an active debater (in 2008 I was invited to write a regular blog in the largest Finnish daily newspaper) and a controversial figure due to my recent interest in evolutionary theory, which is not popular among present-day postmodern or constructionist sociology. However, it seems that there is growing interest in evolutionary theory and I have already inspired several extremely gifted students to deepen their interest in evolutionary theory. I have also participated internationally in creating a scientific community interested in evolutionary theory (I am member of the ASA Evolution and Sociology committee).

I believe that the greatest problem in modern social sciences is in its increasing practical irrelevance: social scientists have started to believe that they may construct (i.e. make claims about) anything, which then becomes socially relevant, without any regard for facts or reality. This is not so. Human nature is not totally malleable, social relations are not just figments of imagination, there are not 25 different sexes etc.  There are evolutionary regularities in human conduct, which needs to be taken seriously and which form the basis of social analysis, instead of the present talk of discourses and language constructions. This is especially true in social policy, which is about the relationship of society, state and social action of the individuals, not (primarily) about representations.

 Teaching
 

I am an extremely experienced teacher who has taught courses ranging from introductory courses in social policy or evolutionary theory to very advanced courses in methods or specific subjects. My teaching career stretches from 1970 when I returned from the US to the present day, and I have seldom given a course twice (even if it sometimes may have carried the same name). I have also used the internet as a forum for teaching almost as soon as it became available. There are several course power points on my website, but the introduction of blogging has made interactive teaching easy and more or less unproblematic. My seminars have been extremely productive of master's theses: nowadays 3-4 of them complete their theses during the seminar.

I have published many of my lecture notes on my home page; some courses are also available in video or audiotape. In 2009, I used for the first time an interactive webblog for the students, which worked quite well

(see blogs.helsinki.fi/huostaanotto).

Free Access Internet Publishing

In recent years I have specialized in internet publishing, so that many of my articles have appeared simultaneously or even only in internet in my home page. It is possible that they will also be printed, but it is my belief that the internet is an ideal forum for direct publication, both for those who do not have other channels and those with established credentials. Therefore, my "portfolio" can be always easily found in the most complete form in my website. Compared to paper publications, they are easily available and can be checked out by anyone. I am fully responsible for their quality. I believe that internet publishing will soon make publishing in paper form obsolete in scientific publishing, especially from a quality perspective (see for example the physicist, mathematics and biology forum ArXiv). Still, I publish continuously articles in paper form also.
In addition, I have published three highly popular texts which are being continuously read via the internet: one about jogging and marathon running (Maratonmies), and a second on taking children into custody (Huostaanottokirja) and a third on how to behave in the court when you are accused or a witness (Käräjäoikeuskäsikirja). These are all freely available, although two of them have also been published in book versions.

Administration and management
 

I am a strong believer of university autonomy and self-government. I do not believe that the present development towards external management and separation of administrative and academic management (as well as introducing antiquated business management principles under the guise of New Public Management into universities) will work in the long run. They have already brought about the lowering of quality and mass production of degrees, as well as a dramatic worsening of the general atmosphere in the universities. Therefore it is necessary that all members of the university community share the burden of administration, especially as only then can they understand what is happening and are (hopefully) able to prevent dangerous developments in time.

I have carried my load by being head of department and member of the faculty council. I have also participated in the activities of the Union of Professors (Professoriliitto) as board member of the Helsinki University local association and alternate member in the council of the Union of Professors. I believe it is our duty to oppose the attempts of government bureaucrats to infringe the university autonomy and uncritically introduce market principles into university administration and management. But now I also think that it is perhaps better not to get upset over the constant changes imposed on the academic world from outside, but rather ignore it and adapt to only the absolutely necessary changes. This saves a lot of energy for other purposes (see my farewell lecture, Roos 2012).

List of selected publications 2014-1973

Articles in international referee journals

 Une autobiographie fleuve, La Faute à Rousseau, Fevrier 2010

The 'Arctic Bourdieu': Four theses from the Nordic countries, Sosiologiskt Årsbok 3-4.2006, 87-102

 Reality or nothing. False and repressed memories in autobiography, in  Kim Lacy Rogers et al (ed): Trauma and Life Stories. International perspectives. Memory and Narrative 2, Routledge, London 2000

(with Elina Haavio-Mannila and Osmo Kontula): Repression, revolution and ambivalence. Sexual  life in three generations. Acta Sociologica 4.1996

(with Keijo Rahkonen): The Field of Intellectuals. The Case of Finland. International Journal of  Contemporary Sociology, Vol 30 (No 2, Oct 1993), 154-172

300 000 yuppies? Mobile phones in Finland. Telecommunications Policy, August 1993, 446-456

European lives:  The question of cultural comparisons through life stories. Auto/Biography 2 (No 1, 1993), 57-64

Behind the Happiness Barrier. Social Indicators Research 20 (1988), 141-163

From Farm to Office: Family, Self-Confidence and the New Middle Class. Life stories/Récits de  vie 3.1987, 7-20

(with Keijo Rahkonen): In Search of the Finnish New Middle Class, in Acta Sociologica 3.1985,     257-274

 Life Stories of Social Changes: Four Generations of Finland, in International Journal of Oral History No 3.1985, 179-190.

(with Barbara Roos): Upper class life over three generations: The case of the Swedish Finns, in   Oral History 1.1984, 25-39.

 Tipologija obraza zhizhni. Sotsiologitsheskie issledovania 4.1981, 185-190

Theories of planning and democratic planning theory. Government and Opposition. A Quarterly of Comparative Politics 3.1974, 331-344

Books in English/Swedish

Books in Finnish

 (with Semi Purhonen. Tommi Hoikkala): Kenen sukupolveen kuulut? Suurten ikäluokkien sosiologiaa. Gaudeamus, Helsinki 2008

Semi-Purhonen- J.P.Roos (toim.): Bourdieu ja minä. Näkökulmia Pierre Bourdieun sosiologiaan.. Vastapaino, 2006

(ed.) Huostaanottokirja. Huostaanotettujen Lasten Vanhempain Yhdistys, Jyväskylä 2004

(&Tommi Hoikkala, ed.): 2000-luvun elämä. Sosiologisia teorioita vuosituhannen vaihteesta. Gaudeamus,  2000

(with Tommi Hoikkala ed.): Elämänpolitiikka (Life Politics) Gaudeamus 1998

(with Anna Rotkirch ed, with ): Vanhemmat ja lapset. (Parents and Children) Gaudeamus 1997

Mieheltä. Tekstejä politiikasta, elämäntavasta ja kulttuurista. (From him. Texts on politics, life styles and culture) Tutkijaliitto, Helsinki 1995

Miehen elämää (Men's life) (edited, with Eeva Peltonen). SKS, Helsinki 1994.

 Elämäntavasta elämäkertaan  (From way of life to life story) Tutkijaliitto, 1988

 Suomalainen elämä. Tutkimus tavallisten suomalaisten elämäkerroista.(Finnish life. A study on ordinary Finns' life stories) SKS 1987

 Articles in refereed books  (in Finnish, Swedish, English, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish)

Taistelusta yhteistoimintaan. Pierre Bourdieu hyvinvointivaltion puolustajana, teoksessa  Juho Saari-Sakari Taipale (toim.):  Hyvinvointivaltio. Gaudeamus (2010)
 
 Durkheim vs Westermarck: An uneven match,  in  The New Evolutionary Social Science: Human Nature, Social Behavior, and Social Change, edited by Heinz-Jürgen Niedenzu, Tamás Meleghy, and Peter Meyer, Paradigm Publishers, Boulder 2008
 

(with Elina Haavio-Mannila)  Why are men reporting more sexual
partners than women? in Kathleen B. Jones and Gunnel Karlsson (eds)
Gender and the Interests of Love, Centrum för feministiska samhällsstudier, Örebro University 2008

(with Anna Rotkirch):  Habitus, naturaleza o educacion? Hacia un paradigma de la sociologia evolutiva (Habitus, nature or nurture? Towards a paradigm of evolutionary sociology) , in  Juan Monreal, Capitolina Diaz, Juan J. Garcia Escribano (eds): Viejas Sociedades, nueva Sociologia. Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas, Madrid, 87-100

Laajat ja suppeat sukupolvet; esimerkkinä suuret ikäluokat ja niiden ympärille kertyneet sukupolviliikkeet. Antti Karisto (toim) Suuret ikäluokat. Vastapaino, Tampere, 2005, 208-221
(Elina Haavio-Mannilan ja Anna Rotkirchin kanssa):  Olivatko suuret ikäluokat murroksen moottoreita?  Jani Erola ja Terhi-Anna Wilska (toim): Yhteiskunnan moottori vai kivireki? Suuret ikäluokat ja 1960-lukulaisuus, SoPhi 92, 2005, 215-238

Tommi Hoikkala-J.P.Roos: Onko 2000-luku elämänpolitiikan vuosituhat? in, Hoikkala-Roos (toim): 2000-luvun elämä, Gaudeamus 2000
Polityka zycia; cos wiezej niz polityka i styl zycia (Life politics; more than politics and life style?), in Dariusz Gawin (ed): Homo Eligens. Spoleczenstwo swiadomego wyboru. Wydawnictwo IFiS PAN Warszawa 1999, 69-75
Masennus - naisten tauti, miesten ongelma, teoksessa Sari Näre (toim): Tunteiden sosiologiaa I. SKS, Helsinki 1999, 176-194

(with Elina Haavio-Mannila): Love stories in sexual autobiographies. in Ruthellen Josselson and Amia Lieblich (eds): Making Meaning of Narratives Sage Publishers Thousand Oaks 1998, 239-282 

Context, Authenticity, Referentiality, Reflexivity; Back to Basics in Autobiography, teoksessa Voronkov-Zdravomyslova (eds): Biographical perspectives on post-socialist societies. Centre for  independent social research, Saint Petersburg 1997 (also in Russian)

 Elina Haavio-Mannila, J.P. Roos and Osmo Kontula: Familienorientierung, Liberalisierung und Ambivalenz im Sexualleben dreier Generationen in Finnland, in B. Nauck ja C. Onnen-Isemann (hrsg) Familie im Brennpunkt von Wissenschaft und Forschung. Luchterhand 1995, 399-418

Miserable men: Finnish men's life stories in a European perspective,  in Christa Hämmerle (ed)  Plurality and individuality. Autobiographical cultures in Europe, IFK, Wien 1995

Pierre Bourdieun pieni ja suuri kurjuus, in Keijo Rahkonen (ed) Sosiologisen teorian uusimmat virtaukset. Gaudeamus, Helsinki 1995.

(with Eija Nurminen): Models of parenting, between generations and classes. In Ulla Björnberg (ed) Parents in the 1990's. Conflicts, Contradictions and Change. Transaction books, New York1992

Life vs. Story vs. Society; a Methodological Bermuda Triangle?, in Björnberg, Ulla (ed): Methods for the study of changing forms of life. International Social Science Council. Vienna Centre, Vienna 1991, 98-108

Life Style Studies in Sociology: From Typologies to Fields and Trajectories. Somogyi JC, Koskinen, EH (eds.): Nutritional Adaptation to New Life-Styles. S.Karger, Basel 1989, 1-16

L'education comme projet de vie des femmes de la nouvelle classe moyenne, in C.Lalive d'Epinay (ed): Travail, activité, condition humaine à l'aube du XXIe siècle Presses interuniversitaires européennes, Maastricht 1989

Selected articles in  Finnish referee journals

Yhteiskuntapolitiikan ajankohtaiset ongelmat. Janus 3.2006, 336-338

Elämänpolitiikka ja evoluutio.Evoluutioteoria ja yhteiskuntatiede. Janus 4.2004, 412-425

100 000 vuotta elämäkertaa?  Elämäntarina 3/2004, 3-10

 (with Anna Rotkirchin ): Habituksen paluu? Osa I (Tieteessä tapahtuu 1.2003)

(with Anna Rotkirchin) Habituksen paluu?  Osa II (Tieteessä tapahtuu 2.2003)

Sosiologin vaikea biologia. Yhteiskuntapolitiikka 6/2003, 635-639

Om tillvaratagande av folkets självbiografier. Historisk tidskift för Finland 2.1988, 266-271

Mitä yhteisen kansan omaelämäkerrat kertovat ja miten? Tiede&Edistys 3.1987, 204-211

Sosiaalipolitiikka ja keskiluokka. Sosiaalipolitiikka 1985, 67-80

Yhteiskunnan muutos ja arkielämä. Tiede &  Edistys 3,1983, 6-15

Elämäntapatutkimus ja elämäntavan tyypit. Sosiaalinen aikakauskirja 1, 1983, 4-7

Elämäntapojen tyypeistä elämäkertojen valossa. Sosiologia 4, 1981, 297-306

Elämisen laatu ja elämäntapa 12970-luvulla. Sosiaalinen aikakauskirja 6, 1980

Kriisi, elämäntapa, onnellisuus. Tiede & edistys 2. 1978

Piirteitä elämäntavan tutkimuksesta. Sosiologia 2.1978

Suunnittelun teorioista. Sosiologia 6.1973

Asiatiskt drama. Ekonomiska samfundets tidskrift 1.1971, 51-58

   For the year 1994  and after,  see full list of publications