Sampo Villanen

Doctoral student, Department of Social Policy, University of Helsinki (FI)

Appropriating places - moderate and more radical protests in Helsinki

Finnish protest events in urban public space happen mostly in a regulated and moderate cooperation with the police. Also disobedient action is usually carefully controlled and limited by the protesters in order to avoid clashes with the police. This paper concentrates on the micro-level spatial regulation in these two types of political protest events. Based on ethnographic data, Finnish demonstrations will be analysed as spatially and temporally mastered and peaceful events. Using Michel de Certeau's concepts of strategy and tactics the paper shows how the Law on Gatherings functions as a framework for cooperation between demonstrators and the police and predetermines the spatial and temporal outlines of protests. The annual demonstration on the Day of Independence of a rather innovative political group is taken up as an exception exemplifying how breaking this particular law disrupts the scheme of the casual demonstration and produces a Lefebvrean space of representation, where increased possibilities for autonomous protest action combine with elements of anarchy. The events have a tendency, however, to become part of the everyday routines as they are repeated. The paper contributes to an understanding of the ways demonstrations reproduce and renew the normal order of things in Helsinki.

Sampo Villanen , M.Soc.Sc. is a doctoral student in urban studies at the department of social policy, University of Helsinki. His Master's thesis in urban sociology discusses protest events and questions of spatial sociology. He enjoyed a nine-month fellowship of the UrbEurope Researcher Training Network in the Humboldt-University in Berlin. He is a member of the editorial board of the Finnish Journal of Urban studies (Yhdyskuntasuunnittelu) and worked previously as editorial assistant of the journal. In addition to protests, his publications (in Finnish) cover topics such as urban planning ideologies in Helsinki, the effects of office architecture on the surrounding urban space, meaning of the late Railway company warehouse (Makasiinit) in Helsinki centre, the concept of the European city and ethnic restaurants in Helsinki. His doctoral dissertation will compare political and commercial action in urban public spaces to analyse the effects of commercialisation to the political aspect of urban public space.