Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences

The History of Experiences

Pirjo Markkola (University of Tampere, TAU), Ville Kivimäki (TAU), Raisa Toivo (TAU) and Pertti Haapala (TAU, former director of the Center of Excellence)

The Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences studies the role and place of experiences in society and in explaining history. It presents a new approach, history of experiences, as a way to establish how people’s experiences are formed, how they are interpreted and how they influence individuals’ relationships to their community and to society at large. The CoE’s research will focus on the role of experiences by studying three major social constructions: (lived) religion, (lived) nation and (lived) welfare state. The prefix ‘lived’ refers to how societal reality is always reflected and made through experiences. Much research has been done on experiences, but they have not been systematically studied as part of the individual-society relationship or when explaining the history of institutions and ways of thinking through a combination of micro and macro analysis. The research data include Finland’s and Europe’s history, offering an example of how to understand, explain and solve key questions of the present and the future human society.

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