TCuPS: Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology

TCuPS (Tampere Research Group for Cultural and Political Sociology) is a multidisciplinary research group within the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tampere. You can read more about the research group here. I presented and discussed the paper Cultural Experiences Abroad: Narratives and Self-Identity within the TCuPS fall 2016 research seminar programme. The multidisciplinary seminar is a weekly gathering forum for researchers and PhD students working on or interested in themes and processes related to e.g. institutionalism, domestication, governance, globalization and transnational change.The main objective of my paper was to reconstruct a leading narrative for cultural experiences abroad. My hypothesis is that the Grand Tour narrative guides the experience of travellers, tourists, sojourners who are visiting Florence (Italy, South Europe). I will test my interpretations with more fieldwork in Italy in the next future. I am now engaged in the attempt to search for a narrative (out of subjective scripts) supporting the cultural experience of international students in Helsinki (Finland, North Europe). I have received many, many interesting and constructive feedbacks from every participant.