Humanities
Below you will find SWOT analyses of the different fields of humanities in Finland. The analyses have been compiled by discipline-specific groups of researchers. At the end of each section, you will find links to PDF versions of the material for printing.
Art research | Cultural studies | History and archaelogy | Linguistics| Philosophy | Theology |
Art research: SWOT analysis
Art research: Strengths
- Multi-methodology, cross-disciplinary research (both scientific and artistic)
- Ample links to other disciplines
- Much to offer other disciplines (e.g. education and social sciences, cognitive science, psychology and history)
- Focus on national heritage and history
- Conceptual-theoretical expertise, art education links to art research (music, media literacy, literature)
Art research: Weaknesses
- Scarcity of international funding
- Lack of funding for language revision (strengthening of international engagement dependent on support for publishing international articles by directing funds to hire native-speaker language editors)
Art research: Opportunities
- New linkages and research projects (e.g. game studies, an emerging, interdisciplinary field of art research)
- The recent change in atmosphere in Finnish public debate, emphasising the significance of culture and art to people
- Different art forms help people in different ways; art research can put this idea into good use
Art research: Threats
- New linkages also possible threats, leading to problems of identity (Where are the fixed points of research that is a hybrid of several different directions or disciplines?)
- Old structures and discipline classification principles inconvenient in terms of new and innovative developments and collaboration opportunities
- Structures push into unhealthy competition, prevent art research from applying its strengths of cooperation and cross-disciplinary research
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Cultural studies: SWOT analysis
Cultural studies: Strengths
- Solid infrastructure, long-standing, internationally recognised research traditions and high-level research
- Extensive (even on a global scale) and well-organised materials (archives, museum collections, fieldwork material); digitisation projects
- Documenting and interpreting culture, exposing the effects of global phenomena on people’s daily lives
- Collecting innovative data, which, when archived, can be used for further research
- Potential benefits from strengthening of research profiles of archives services and museum institutions
- Interaction between national and international perspectives, top expertise in understanding cultural identity and dialogue as well as in basic research into Finland’s cultural past and present
- Ability to analyse quantitative data, effective fieldwork methods and material, multi-sited ethnography
Cultural studies: Weaknesses
- Student-to-staff ratio too high, complicates implementation of varied education
- Scarce resources also threat to doctoral training, may reduce time available for research
- Access to university infrastructure (work facilities, training) not automatically granted to postdoctoral researchers and docents
- International and national mobility at risk in some departments due to insufficient funds also at the professor level (limited funds for travel and language revision)
- Limited availability of research spells for professors and other permanent, established experts
Cultural studies: Opportunities
- Increasing professional and collective efforts to secure international funding entirely possible with existing close contacts (e.g. cross-generational Nordic collaboration)
- Improved employment of PhDs as the need for cultural dialogue and global expertise grows and the activities of cultural memory organisations become more diversified
- Utilising the social exposure of the scholars’ broad expertise
- Strengthening the position of docents
- Increasing the innovative use of joint resources of museums, archives and other infrastructures; synergy from networking between universities
Cultural studies: Threats
- Pitfalls of research career funding also threat to international networks
- Facilities and property issues between foundations and universities undermine the sense of community
- Mainstreaming of university structures threat to all minor subjects; move to larger administrative units must not put subjects’ identities and continuity at risk
- Increasing administrative burden at universities takes time and resources away from teachers and researchers
- Funds within large departments distributed based on subjects’ performance, not staff numbers; criteria for science indicators to remain at the level of individual subjects
- Cut-backs in funding from Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Academy of Finland and foundations
- Research steered restrictively by certain targeted research funding calls
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History and archaeology: SWOT analysis
History and archaeology: Strengths
- International engagement
- Managing extensive schemes
- Using long time series and comprehensive datasets
- International quality of research
- Versatility
- Infrastructure
- Comparative analysis
History and archaeology: Weaknesses
- Scarcity of resources: scattered research and researchers; insufficient dialogue between institutions; limited commercial publishing
- Lack of vision for history research, no creation of future trends
- Weak and scattered infrastructure in archaeology, for instance
- Unprotected professions
History and archaeology: Opportunities
- Interdisciplinary dialogue
- Social impact
- Critical application of historical knowledge
- Tacit knowledge
- Increasing international engagement, international publishing of Finnish research
- Potential of supranational research
History and archaeology: Threats
- Lack of history in the present day, shortness of time perspective
- The Finnish society’s inability to utilise historical resources
- Effects of a ‘quarterly economy’ and the lack of history on science policy and funding
- Decreasing significance of culture and civilisation
- Sensitivity of history research funding to economic fluctuations
- Fragmentariness of history research, media-driven research and difficulties in context identification
- Weakening in researchers’ all-round education and grasp of extensive schemes
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Linguistics: SWOT analysis
Linguistics: Strengths
- Strong, traditional fields of linguistics at the international cutting edge of research
- Long-standing research tradition
- Notable domestic research material (e.g. archives and collections of the Institute for the Languages of Finland)
- Appropriately scaled doctoral training
- National doctoral programme in language studies (Langnet)
Linguistics: Weaknesses
- Limited national mobility in spite of structural developments
- Little international publishing (although varies greatly between fields)
Linguistics: Opportunities
- Increased cooperation thanks to larger institutions (following structural development), brand-new attitudes and a stimulating atmosphere
- Reorganisation of the activities of the Institute for the Languages of Finland
- Many themes related to the ‘grand challenges’ core competencies of linguists (e.g. dialogue between cultures, learning and know-how in the media society)
- Themes covered by Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation possibly relevant to linguists
- Increasing demand for linguistic research knowledge on the nodal points of societal development: foreign language learning for children; globalisation; knowledge generation and a firmer anchoring of knowledge in society; linguistic identities; multilingualism; and language boundaries
- Social impact as an integral part of linguistic research
- The Publication Forum project; impacts on publication practices already seen
- A variety of needs for linguists with PhDs in different sectors of society
Linguistics: Threats
- Considerable cut-backs in public expenditure, stiffer competition for public research funds
- Decreasing autonomy and self-direction of science
- Centralised management unsuitable for expert organisations
- Ever weaker preconditions for research as continuous structural development reduces time available for research
- Regression in fields with long-standing research traditions (e.g. Assyriology, Altaic studies, classical philology, research in minor languages) following retirement of chairs
- Uncertain future for important fields of linguistic basic research (e.g. phonetics, general linguistics) due to decrease in education available at universities
- Reorganisation of the activities of the Institute for the Languages of Finland and severe cut-backs in appropriations
- Focusing publishing practices in a way that is ill-suited for research in the humanities
- Lack of constructive dialogue between universities; poses threat to minor subjects/languages
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Philosophy: SWOT analysis
Philosophy: Strengths
- Established and prominent international standing
- Varied research approaches, good collaboration between approaches
- Broad-based knowledge and know-how among Finnish philosophers
- Prevalent cultural exposure of Finnish philosophy
Philosophy: Weaknesses
- Lack of permanent staff and core funding in proportion to the scale of research
- Insufficient efforts in some traditional core areas of philosophy
- Lack of support services for research
- Research excessively project-based; consequences for the research career
Philosophy: Opportunities
- Flexible and creative collaboration with other scientific disciplines
- New forms of international cooperation; increasingly important role of Finns in international networks
- Opportunities created by societal and scientific change for new philosophical research initiatives
- Development of national cooperation in doctoral training
Philosophy: Threats
- Rapid, simultaneous and uncoordinated changes in the operating environment
- Growing dependence on larger decision-making units
- Weakening preconditions for basic research and research identity
- Increasing obstacles to national collaboration between universities
- Effects of uncoordinated profiling and competition on cooperation
- Increasing difficulties in national doctoral training cooperation, decreasing funding for researcher training
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Theology: SWOT analysis
Theology: Strengths
- High-quality, internationally top-level research
- Research field attracts much interest in society
- Success in calls for external funding, often international success
- High-level doctoral training
- Extensive international networking
- Exposure of and demand for theologians in society
Theology: Weaknesses
- Lack of research into world religions and their traditions
- Scarcity of resources for permanent staff (without external funding)
- Wide scope of research; need for increased focus
- Often insufficient utilisation of interdisciplinary collaboration and international funding opportunities
Theology: Opportunities
- Improving recruitment
- Developing the system of research leaves
- Drafting joint research strategy for three units
- Intensifying cooperation between the fields of theology
- Increasing interdisciplinary collaboration
- Strengthening cooperation and supporting a joint research strategy between the Nordic countries
Theology: Threats
- Domestic and foreign research funds increasingly allocated based on needs of ‘hard sciences’
- Insufficient resources for doctoral training, nationally and at university level
- No improvements in student-to-staff ratio in theology
- Publishing practices fail to account for the unique characteristics of research in the humanities
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