1st Workshop: Methodologies

The first NOREMPO workshop was organised remotely on August 23rd, 2021. The workshop focused on a basic issue of utmost importance: how to do empirical research on religion and populism in the present hybrid media environment? The workshop brought together NOREMPO participants who are specialised in qualitative and/or quantitative methods to map existing research, data sets and related methods relevant for the study of religion and populism in the Nordic countries. The workshop focused on the following questions:

  • What kind of methodological tools (including both qualitative and quantitative) are the most relevant for identifying populist actors, discourses and their circulations?

  • What kind of knowledge is produced by applying given methods? What are the benefits and/or weaknesses of such knowledge as assessed from previous studies?

  • How can various methods be combined to target weaknesses appearing in previous research on religion and populism?

  • What kind of new ethical and juridical issues become actualised in different methodological and empirical research designs for researching religion and populism

Programme of the first workshop

Host: University of Helsinki Time: 10:00-15:30 EEST (UTC/GMT +3 hours)

10:00-10:15 Network opening
Johanna Sumiala & Katja Valaskivi, University of Helsinki

10:15-12:00 Panel discussion
Chair: Mia Lövheim, Uppsala University
Linnea Jensdotter, Uppsala University – See Linneas presentation here
Anders Larsson, Kristiania University College
Anne Agersnap, Aarhus University

12:00-13:00 Lunch break

13:00-14:00 Keynote: “From Data Theory to Digital Methods”
Simon Lindgren, Umeå University
Chair: Katja Valaskivi, University of Helsinki

14:15-15:00 Roundtable discussion
Chair: Henrik Reintoft Christensen, Aarhus University

15:00-15:30 Wrapping up
Johanna Sumiala, University of Helsinki

Keynote: "From Data Theory to Digital Methods" - Simon Lindgren