Anne Koski

By training I am a political scientist, but my angle has always been an interdisciplinary one and I have combined art studies with social sciences. My path as researcher has not been traditional, but in addition to university I have worked also as a journalist and as an information officer. I possess also the Bachelor’s Degree in Cultural Management. Recently I have become increasingly interested in finding new ways of publishing research results by mixing arts and science.

Research & Development

As a political scientist I am specialized in political communication and in international relations. I have studied images and beliefs as means of influencing the foreign political decision-making. Images and beliefs are also part of political epistemology, where various political actors question and contest what can be known and what is treated as fact in politics. In addition, I have studied affects and emotions as means of creating economic value in the post-industrial economy. Presently my research interests include overconfidence and epistemic arrogance as form of organizational ignorance making for the companies more difficult to renew their modes of operation and adapt into changing market circumstances. From human sciences methods I have used semiotics, speech act theory, ethnomethodology and GTM-method.

The Covid-19 pandemic prevention of Finnish Government as a process where the politicians were dealing with ignorance in making decision on pandemic while there was mostly uncertain or lacking knowledge available. Epistemic arrogance as form of organizational ignorance where ignorance is not originating only from individual attitudes but also from organizational and institutional structures.

Niinkö on jos siltä näyttää [Judging by Appearances]? (2005) was one of the first academic dissertations in Finland focusing on images and visual means of influencing the foreign political decision-making. The book was used as a textbook in the University of Jyväskylä.

After that I have hold a temporary teaching position in University of Tampere and worked as a part-time teacher in the University of Helsinki, in the Aalto University, in the University of Lappland, in the University of Jyväskylä, in the Lahti University of Applied Sciences and in the Tampere University of Applied Sciences. I have acted as a referee in several Finnish scientific journals and as an expert in the Finnish media.

As a researcher I have mostly worked in several multidisciplinary research project financed by the Academy of Finland as The Working Body in the Post-Industrial Economy (2011-14) and Leadeship, Power and Fear (2008-2010). I visited shortly also in the research project on the Finnish Election Funding Crisis funded by the Foundation of Helsingin Sanomat in 2011.

Parviainen, J. & Koski, A. & Torkkola, S. 2021. ‘Building a Ship while Sailing It.’ Epistemic Humility and the Temporality of Non-knowledge in Political Decision-making on COVID-19. Social Epistemology. A Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2021.1882610

Koski, A.2016. Palvelutalous selätti teknologiaikonin [Service economy defeated the technology icon]. -Parviainen, Jaana & Kinnunen, Taina & Kortelainen, Ilmari. Ruumiillisuus ja työelämä: Työruumis jälkiteollisessa [Working Body in the Post-Industrial Economy]. Tampere: Vastapaino.

Koski, A. 2014. Överföring med rutans hjälp [Political Moves in the Screen. The Politicking Nature of the Political Programs on Television from the 1960s to the Present]. - Wiio, Juhani ed. Den finska televisionens milstolpar - Program och programproduktion under fem årtionden. Göteborg: Nordicom & Svenska social- och kommunalhörgskolan vid Helsingfors Universitet. SSKH Skrifter 36.

Koski, A. 2011. Organising political consensus: The visual management of diplomatic negotiations and community relations in the Finnish accession to the EU. - Stocchetti, Matteo & Kukkonen, Karin ed. Images in Use. John Benjamins Publishing Company.