All Over Now? Reflections on Social Class

Is social class still relevant in the digital age? Has it been superseded by other forms of identity? Are we “all middle class now”? What roles has class played within popular culture? Join us for all this and more in this event hosted jointly by the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) and the International Institute for Popular Culture (IIPC).

Programme

10.30 Opening remarks (Martin Cloonan, Kari Kallioniemi, Laura Saarenmaa)

10.45. Panel 1: Reflections on social class (i): A collection of 15 minute provocations. Chair: Martin Cloonan
 
Ranjana Saha: Midwifery, Childbirth and Breastfeeding in colonial Bengal
Aymeric Pantet: Social critique in cinema: tool for a class-consciousness (and the other social parameters)
Tiina Männistö-Funk & Riikka Taavetti: Riikka Taavetti & Tiina Männistö-Funk: Class on the Ferry: Social Class, Gender and Nationality in M/S Romantic (2019)
Jeffrey Wall: Class is Immaterial: Status trumps kapital in the postmodern fever

12.15 Lunch break (at own cost)

13.30 Panel 2: Reflections on social class (ii): More 15 minute provocations. Chair: Laura Saarenmaa

Kari Kallioniemi: The Beatles, Music and class
Ralf Kauranen: Class and Cartoons: Is That a Thing in 21st Century Finland?
Noora Kallioniemi: Comedic Reflections of Contented Unemployment: Reimagining Leisure in 1990s Finland during Economic Depression
Laura Saarenmaa: Lego Friends at Work - hopes and fears of work life in the neoliberal age

15.00: Coffee break (at own cost)

15.20 Keynote: Hanna Kuusela (Tampere University): Streaming privilege: How television teaches us to accept class divisions

16.20: Concluding remarks and comments (Martin Cloonan, Kari Kallioniemi, Laura Saarenmaa)

Keynote Speaker

Hanna Kuusela is an Academy Research Fellow and adjunct professor, working in the intersection of culture and economy. She currently works as an Academy Research Fellow at the Tampere Research Centre for Journalism, Media and Communication, at Tampere University. Hanna’s research interests include economic elites, cultural analysis of capital, consultocracy, contemporary cultural formations as well as university autonomy in the postdemocratic age. Her  specific interests in literature include collaborative writing practices and literary appropriations. She is a member of the Academic Board at Tampere University, the editor-in-chief of the journal Kulttuurintutkimus and a founding member of the Helsinki Centre for Global Political Economy.

Keynote abstract: Streaming privilege: How television teaches us to accept class divisions

Inheritances and dynastic dynamics shape our destinies, challenging the very essence of meritocracy. Despite contemporary promises of social mobility for the talented and hardworking, reality tells a different story. The so-called ‘great wealth transfer’ will see fortunes of historical proportions passed on to a generation of heirs, and even middle class lifestyles are increasingly dependent on family wealth. In her talk, Kuusela examines how popular television contributes to these developments, analysing popular and award-winning television series, which grapple with dynastic wealth and privilege. These 'family succession dramas', like Downton Abbey, The Crown, Succession and Game of Thrones spark vital questions: What is inherited privilege? Who are worthy of inheriting? And how or why should wealth and privilege flow through dynasties? Series like Succession, Yellowstone and The Crown guide their middle class viewers through moral quandaries, providing means to navigate contemporary social realities. The talk focuses on today’s television’s obsession with privilege, birth rights, the economic role of kinship bonds and the future's deepening inequalities, unveiling the middle class' own role in perpetuating or challenging cross-generational inequalities. It urges us to consider the cultural narratives and political measures needed to change the direction and to stop wealth inequalities from growing.