Hanna Kuusela

A neon green square with the words: Redistributive Imaginaries: How do didigtla platforms shape meanings and practices of redistribution in Europe's mixed economies of welfare?

Join us for an online seminar to celebrate the end of our project, Redistributive Imaginaries, and the launch of our report.

18.03.26
12.00-13.30 CET

With @mrtzg.bsky.social, Mercè Oliva, Milana Čergić, John Clarke, @hannakuu.bsky.social & Eva Frade

ema.uzh.ch/RXNMK

💸🚨I am hiring 2 Postdocs for my ERC-funded project SOCDEBT on #debt dynamics across countries. One position: #SocialStratification + strong quantitative skills. The other: qualitative research and #EconomicSociology. waitkus.github.io/SOCDEBT/ 🚨💸

🚨 The political economy of finance summer school is back, 3rd year running! Better still: We're bringing it to London via @lse-ei.bsky.social.

𝐓𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜: Finance & democracy
𝙳̲̲𝚊̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚎̲: 4-5 June 2026
𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦: March 1. Link below.

We've got brilliant instructors as usual. Please spread the word!

Onko konsensuksen aika ohi? Voiko kannattavaa bisnestä tehdä pohjoismaiset arvot edellä, vai löytävätkö meilläkin trumpilaisuus ja elinkeinoelämä toisensa? Vedän sunnuntaina paneelin aiheesta ”Onko elinkeinoelämä radikalisoitumassa?” Käänne-festareilla. kaannefestival.fi/conference-e...

A new book just out, focusing on the social acceptance of inequality, edited by Francesco Duina and Luca Storti. I wrote about the abolition of the wealth tax in Finland and how the parliamentary discussions around it reflect a new acceptance of wealth accumulation in the Nordic context.

From the figure of the obscene rich to the fantasy of its destruction: on Succession, schadenfreude and the godlike power of the super-rich on screen A significant part of contemporary popular culture portrays the rich as obscene, self-destructive, addicted and deranged. This article analyses the affective intensities circulating around this tro...

Succession fosters a fantasy in which rich dynasties will eventually destroy themselves in the fair game of merits.

The article should also work as a teaser for my forthcoming book Streaming Privilege. How Television Teaches us to Accept Inequality.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

From the figure of the obscene rich to the fantasy of its destruction: on Succession, schadenfreude and the godlike power of the super-rich on screen A significant part of contemporary popular culture portrays the rich as obscene, self-destructive, addicted and deranged. This article analyses the affective intensities circulating around this tro...

My article on the tv hit Succession and its media reception finally out. Keywords Schadenfreude, fantasy, dynasties. My argument being that it is a fantasy-driven construct appealing to a middle class desire to see the rich as miserable people destined to fall. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This paper is part of a forthcoming special issue on Families & Wealth edited by @hannakuu.bsky.social @celinebessiere.bsky.social @katiehiggins.bsky.social. They threw a fabulous workshop in Finland last year where I received invaluable advice about how to move this paper forward.

Staying Apart for the Kids? Older American Daters and the Preservation of Family Wealth Romantic repartnering in later life has received substantial scholarly and public attention in light of population aging and changes in family dynamics. In the United States, the importance of househ...

Excited to finally share my new paper (w/Raphaël Charron-Chénier) out in BJS! Staying Apart for the Kids looks at how older adults consider preserving family wealth in their new relationships. Drawing on my interviews with mid/late-life daters, we show how accumulated wealth shapes dating decisions.

Avatkaa suunne. Tutkija Hanna Kuuselaa huolettaa, että rikkaat kääntävät demokratialle selkänsä. Björn Wahlroos sanoo ihailevansa Donald Trumpin tehokkuusutopiaa, eikä häntä haasta kukaan.

Kutsuhuutoni Suomen elinkeinoelämälle.

Hanna Kuusela, Leena Niemistö and Alf Rehn selected to the Uniarts Helsinki Board | Uniarts Helsinki The University Collegium has appointed three new members from outside the Uniarts Helsinki community for a four-year term from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2029. The newly selected members are Hanna…

Something new and exciting ahead! After 6 years of continuous criticisim against the compositions and actions of university boards in Finland, I was now nominated to sit in one of those boards at the wonderful Uniarts. Not only universities but also art needs our tireless support in these times!

Kapitalismin yö | Taiteiden yö

Tervetuloa torstaina klo 17-21 Kapitalismin yöhön Antikvariaatti Sofiaan Helsinkiin. Ruodittavana tuoretta kapitalismiaiheista kirjallisuutta ja tuoreita suomennoksia Milliltä, Adornolta, Eribonilta ja Tanskasen Tympeiltä tytöiltä. Vapaa pääsy! helsinkifestival.fi/taiteidenyo/...

I wrote this piece for the upcoming @bjsociology.bsky.social special issue on Families and Wealth, edited by @celinebessiere.bsky.social , @katiehiggins.bsky.social, & @hannakuu.bsky.social . There are going to be so many fantastic articles in it and I can’t wait to read them in their final forms.

Unnatural Wills: Inheritance Disputes and Inequality Within the conceptual frame of relational economic sociology, inheritance disputes are a canonical form of relational mismatch. But the social patterning of relational mismatches, and their various t...

I am soo excited to share my newest article, “Unnatural Wills.” It’s about inheritance disputes!!! Murder, gold diggers, sex work, racial passing, secret lesbian lovers…WOW this was fun to write, and I hope it’s fun to read, too.

We show how the for-profit actors attribute the well-known discontents of marketisation almost solely to the failures of the public sector and to the wrongdoings of their competitors, creating a peculiar moral economy in which private profits have become an essential part of public services. 2/2

The winners of marketisation: Welfare profit-makers legitimising private profits in publicly funded welfare services - Hanna Kuusela, Laura Tarkiainen, 2025 Recent decades have witnessed the expansion of market mechanisms and private service providers in publicly funded care sectors. In this article, we examine how ...

A new article just out in which we introduce the concept of welfare profit-makers and describe how private profit-making from publicly funded health and care services gets legitimised by those benefitting from marketization. Co-written with Laura Tarkiainen. 1/2

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Your project looks great! Happy to learn about it.

First draft of a new book sent to the publisher. (And already noticed two typos in the table of contents!)

Congratulations. Great to see this out.

Hanna Kuuselan kirjan "Syytös" kansi

Nyt kun Tampereen yliopistolla lakkoillaan, on hyvä aika kehua Hanna Kuuselan (@hannakuu.bsky.social) mainiota kirjaa TAUn ja TTYn yhdistymisestä säätiöyliopistoksi, jonka hallinnossa ei tutkijoiden ja opiskelijoiden mielipiteistä ei oltu niin kiinnostuneita.

#kirjallisuus #yliopisto

📢 Here is an exciting job opportunity at the TU Berlin. Please spread the word and apply!

Post-Doc, 5yrs, work on your independent research on ownership and / or wealth inequality, teach 2 courses per semester, collaborate with me and in a supportive team.

www.jobs.tu-berlin.de/stellenaussc...

Checking the proofs of my chapter for the book ’The Social Acceptance of Inequality’, by Francesco Duina & Luca Storti. It will be an interesting collection that highlights the social and cultural dimensions of inequality. Here an interview with the editors: ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2024/05/the-...

Congratulations. Well deserved!

5. Adding to this, the type of skills elite have obtained through their education varies (but not always along the level fof credentials described above). Engineers and natural scientists still constitute a substantial part of economic elites in China, France or Finland.

4. The credentials also differ. In sic of the countries, at least around a fifth have a doctoral degree. However this is very rare, for instance in the Scandinavian countries

3. The degree of international recruitment and recruitment from the economic capital of the country and other key functional urban areas varies substantially. Economic elites in Argentina, Italy, Portugal and France are born in the countries largest urban centres.

2. When looking at the very apex of the economic elites, the lack of gender diversity becomes even stronger. However, the gender gap in WED is strongly correlated with the WEF Gender Gap Index.

Some highlights:

1. Economic elites vary a lot. However, they are varieties of pale, stale and male. Here is the age distribution across gender. Note that in particular the US is very much a gerontocracy, also when it comes to economic elites

So happy that the first paper of our very big collaborative and comparative effort on elites, called World Elite Database, is now out in @bjsociology.bsky.social Finland is included in this project that offers standardised data about the economic elites of 16 countries.

Editorial: Consultants and public management reforms Published in Public Money & Management (Ahead of Print, 2024)

Interested in the use of consultants and public reforms? A Special Issue edited by me and my great colleagues
@mattiylonen.bsky.social
and Ringa Raudla
for Public Money and Management is now out as a collection. You may want to start with the editorial.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....