why celebration?

After all, celebration amounts to no more and no less than a mode of making sense. As such, it is also a mode of being and becoming. Celebration is important if not vital for individuals as well as communities. Do not forget, however, that while vital celebration has a disruptive potential as well.

Celebrative practices have been studied by anthropologists, ethnologists, archaeologists, and historians. Consequences of celebration make a familiar topic in social and health sciences.

In sociology, the main approach to celebration has long been and still is problem oriented. However, the atmosphere is changing. There is a growing interest in studying celebration from a more general viewpoint. Celebration an sich now attracts a growing number of sociologists. In the wake of this growing enthusiasm, there is a shared experience that a sociological theory of celebration capable of articulating all kind of celebratory activity is missing.

The project aims to contribute to the advancement of such a theory.

The pages of the project are still in their making. You are welcome to take part!


research plan [submitted to Academy of Finland Sep 2013]

background

objectives

method and material

implementation and collaboration

results and risks

literature