Scholar in Residence 2026
Hanna Kuusela
Hanna Kuusela is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and the MPIfG Scholar in Residence 2026. During her stay at the Institute, she presents a lecture series entitled "The Redistributive Ethos in Crisis: Three Imaginaries Dismantling the Welfare State." The three lectures will take place on May 5, and May 26, and June 2, 2026.
Hanna Kuusela is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research lies at the intersection of economic sociology and cultural studies, with a particular focus on economic elites, the wealthy, and the cultural legitimization of economic privileges. Her recent projects have focused on cultures of private capital in twenty-first-century Finland, elites’ understanding of the Nordic welfare model and its changing moral foundations, and representations of rich families in popular culture. Her current research concerns legacy giving, large donations, and the role of charitable giving in the context of the Nordic welfare state.
Selected publications
Tarkiainen, L., & Kuusela, H. (2026). Universalism in Flux: Welfare Profit-Makers’ Views Towards the Institution of Welfare Universalism. Acta Sociologica, published online February 26.
Kuusela, H. (2025). Accepting Great Wealth Inside the Nordic Model: The Case of Finnish Wealth Tax Reform. In F. Duina, & L. Storti (Eds.), The Social Acceptance of Inequality: On the Logics of a More Unequal World, 111–30. Oxford University Press.Oxford University Press.
Kuusela, H., & Tarkiainen, L. (2025). The Winners of Marketisation: Welfare Profit-Makers Legitimising Private Profits in Publicly Funded Welfare Services. Current Sociology, published online June 10.
Kuusela, H. (2024). The Rise of the Owners and the Neo-Accumulationist Imaginary: Changing Perceptions of Private Wealth in Finnish Business Media, 1981–2021. Economy and Society 53 (4), 651–74.
Kuusela, H. (2023). Inheriting a Dynasty: Family Succession Dramas and the Moral Economy of Downton Abbey. European Journal of Cultural Studies 27 (4), 701–19.
Kuusela, H. (2018). Learning to Own: Cross-Generational Meanings of Wealth and Class-Making in Wealthy Finnish Families. The Sociological Review 66 (6): 1161–76.