Satunnaisesta poliitikosta refleksiiviseksi toimijaksi : poliittisen osallistumisen muutoksesta

Authors

• Tapio Häyhtiö
• Jarmo Rinne

Abstract

What is politics? The notion seems to be blurred in the whirlpool of transformations in societal conditions. Simply, there is a new orientation in politics; activity by the people instead of activity for the people. This reflexive politics, as that emerging phenomenon is called in this article, is challenging the older prevailing version of politics. We analyse how the political environment has fractured into diverse, complex and multi-spatial networks. Big politics breaks into pieces and becomes a kaleidoscope of small, more personal politics. We illustrate this ongoing turn effecting on citizenship, on forms of political activities as well as on the channels of political participation with the help of empirical cases. This is done both from the perspective of old institutional politics and from that of new citizen-oriented reflexive politics.