Sukupolvet, elämäntapa ja politiikka

Authors

• Johanna Jääsaari

Abstract

Political scientists tend to overestimate the role of politics and political issues in the everyday life Political science has also succeeded in making a contribution to the overall day Life and Poli- trivialization of political discussion in Finland by ignoring issues brought up by recent research tics into cultural change and the »way of life». This article explores the possibilities to consider these new dimensions in political research by examining how politics has entered the daily lives of men and women as described in the autobiographies of four generations of Finns. The autobiographies form a case-study of how the »way of life», here understood as developed during a life-time by generation, social class, geographical mobility and gender, creates different attitudes toward society and politics. The analysis of this case-study questions the enthusiastic reliance on survey- research methods in interpretating changes in political culture and political socialization, which has partly promoted the misrepresentation of recent social phenomena such as political and social privatization.