The Annual Sociological Conference (Sosiologipäivät) 2025 was held in Turku at the university campus on 20–21 March. The theme of the year was Turns and fractures. The program included keynote speeches and working groups connected to the theme and a panel discussion on the future of sociology.
The conference had a strong start on Thursday, when Professor Mark Carrigan gave a wonderful, yet depressing keynote addressing Sociological Practice, AI and Platform Capitalism. It was one of the most impactful sessions I attended in addition to the working groups. Mark Carrigan’s keynote on generative AI and the widespread anxiety within universities about the integrity of assessment. Drawing on his research into how academics use social media and generative AI, he argues that conversational agents can support public sociology in concrete and practical ways. However, this possibility needs to be understood against the backdrop of platform capitalism within which these tools have emerged.
Today generative AI represents an intensification of the dynamics which defined social media platforms: the enclosure of social activity as training data, the computational processing of human experience and the commodification of interaction. Understanding this phenomenon through the lens of sociological practice can help us negotiate between the opportunities and threats which generative AI poses for public sociology, as well as suggesting how we might contribute to the development of more sustainable digital platforms which could support rather than undermine public scholarship.
The practices of data and platform capitalism have had an impact on social media, polarization and political spheres in western societies. These same practices, focusing on data capitalism and maximizing time consumption on these platforms will most likely find their way into the global gambling economy. This will most likely pose new challenges in preventing harm, reducing risks and on public health in general.
CEACG's researchers hosted two working groups at the conference. The Addiction Economy: Excessive consumption, public health, and responsibility hosted by Paula Rautoja and Sébastien Berret focused on addictive commodities, such as alcohol, nicotine products, and gambling, which cause significant harm to public health and are therefore regulated by the state. However, their vast potential for profit can prompt commercial entities involved in these industries to use strategies that drive excessive consumption and lead states to adopt laxer regulation. This has significant health and ethical implications, as an increase in the consumption of addictive commodities may result in more harm, often among vulnerable populations.
The working group was opened by Johanna Järvinen-Tassopoulos (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) on Supervision of gambling and prevention of gambling harms in non-casino retail network. Gambling products of the Finnish gambling monopoly Veikkaus are sold in 6,300 retail outlets across the country. There’s evidence of gambling contributing to broadening of job descriptions, or ‘job enlargement’. Job enlargement can weaken the efficacy of control and harm prevention at non-casino gambling locations, as staff are unable to keep up with all responsibilities while also facing role conflicts between their task of selling products and preventing harms caused by those products.
Mark Tarplee continued with gambling theme on his presentation on Exploring online offshore gambling across the Nordics and the development of the Helsinki Offshore Gambling Estimator (HOGE). Due to the proliferation of online gambling, caused by both technological advancements, and COVID-19 pandemic, there is an assumption that there has been a major shift from land-based to online gambling. HOGE aims to map offshore online gambling in the Nordic countries, to provide a better understanding of consumption, responsibility and public health in the field of gambling addiction studies.
Veera Kankainen (University of Helsinki) presented Cyclic Paths of Addiction, Recovery, Service, and Support: Insights from Third-Sector Gambling Helpline. In Finland, the public sector is primarily responsible for providing social and health care services to individuals harmed by gambling, but researchers and experts have noted that these services are often insufficient or lacking. This shortfall leads to a reliance on third-sector services. The future of third-sector services is unclear in the emerging Finnish online gambling markets and the extent to which the public sector or even for-profit gambling companies should take responsibility for providing more comprehensive social care and support.
Paula Rautoja’s (University of Helsinki) presentation "Pineapple long drink, it was everywhere" – Youth and alcohol marketing on social media discussed limiting exposure to alcohol marketing as one of the most important and effective interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm (WHO 2018). As online environments and social media have become part of everyday life, regulation of alcohol marketing has struggled to keep up. Despite the effects of exposure to marketing, young individuals interviewed in this study were well aware of the risks of alcohol consumption, and many described sober lifestyles or preferences to drink responsibly.
The second working group The fractures and turns of drug use and drug policy (Huumausaineiden käytön ja huumepolitiikan käänteet ja murtumat) was hosted by Aleksi Hupli and Mika Tsupari. The first-ever working group focused on drug use, drug policy and discussed current drug issues, including cannabis, psychedelics, and drug residue testing.
The working group was opened on Thursday by Aleksi Hupli (Tampere University) with a historical review Domestic cannabis debate in medicine then and now. The presentation provided background on the context of cannabis in the medical context and how the medical community's attitude towards cannabis has changed over time in Finland, what kind of twists and turns it has been involved in, and what kind of attitude climate there is today.
Mika Luoma-Aho (LY) presented the history of Finnish cannabis activism, as well as cannabis activism in Turku. The presentation provided background on what or who the movement formed by Finnish cannabis activists opposes and, in doing so, defends and represents.
Eve Orhanli (LY) presented the political control and institutional language of the Finnish cannabis phenomenon, as well as the ways in which people who use cannabis think and articulate the cannabis phenomenon. Orhanli brought to the discussion the use of cannabis in life situations integrated into society, overlooked by problem-focused drug policy, and the associated self-determination.
Ronja Järvelin (University of Helsinki) spoke about The contextual formation of addictive cannabis use. The presentation, inspired by actor network theory, analyzed the interaction of socio-material actors and their ability to maintain addictive cannabis use, as well as process-related dimensions.
Mika Tsupari (University of Helsinki) opened the Friday working group with a presentation From science to pleasure, justifications of the use of classic psychedelics in Finland, which discussed justifications for naturalistic psychedelic use through Boltanski & Thévenot's worlds of justification.
Teemu Kaskela (A-clinic Foundation) presented “The usefulness of a drug residue-based substance identification model in Finland”, which dealt with drug checking, which refers to a harm-reducing method that determines the chemical composition of a drug in a person’s possession and exchanges information about the risks associated with its use. Substance identification based on residues appears to be a method that reaches people who use drugs outside the substance abuse service system.
Aila Mustamo (Tampere University) & Jussi Jylkkä (AAU) gave the last talk of the working group Psychedelic researchers’ self-reflection under the pressure of the prohibition law which presented the results of their survey (N = 111) regarding the prevalence of psychedelic researchers’ own psychedelic experiences and the researchers’ views on the significance of these experiences in their research work. The situation was described as complex: on the one hand, researchers consider their own experiences important for research, but on the other hand, they see a risk that their own experiences distort the research.
Beyond these insightful sessions, the conference provided ample opportunities for networking. We had the chance to meet and exchange ideas with professionals from diverse backgrounds, old and new acquaintances and have various discussions of current topics. The conference dinner included a concert with the music from 1920s and 1930s.
Overall Sosiologipäivät 2025 was a pleasant, insightful and rewarding experience for the team. The insights gained and connections made will undoubtedly influence my work in the coming months.
Next year Sosiologipäivät will be held in Rovaniemi in May 2026, no doubt CEACG will have at least one working group in the arctic!