Åbo Akademi

Post-Doc, Comparative Religion

Other Affiliations: The Open University, Religious Studies

Thesis Title: From security to self-expression: The emergent value pattern and changing role of religion

About

I received a M.A. in Comparative Religion from the University of Helsinki in 2003 and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the Open University, UK in 2010. My thesis explores the links between values and religious change, particularly the simultaneous proliferation of new religions and the spreading of secular world-view.

I am currently working as a post-doctoral researcher for a project entitled "Viewpoints to the World" with Professor Peter Nynäs and Ph.D. student, MA, Janne Kontala. In this project we explore how people's world-views are related to their value priorities and what kinds of world-views and value emphases are found among people who are active in different social movements.

In my work I use a mixed-methods approach. My main interest is social-psychological approaches to studying people's world-view and values. I am using Shalom Schwartz's value model to survey individuals' value priorities and looking into combining that in my post-doc research with David Wulff's Faith Q-Sort to map world-view types.