J P Roos

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J.P.Roos (born 1945) is a Finnish sociologist and former European Sociological Association (http://www.europeansociology.org) President, professor in social policy at the University of Helsinki. He has studied in the University of Chicago, and taught at UCLA, University of Geneva, EHESS in Paris, University of Minnesota.

His main research areas are: Evolutionary sociology, generations, especially the baby boomers' generation, life stories and autobiographies, human rights in child protection, the social impact of mobile phones, intellectuals, well-being and ways of life in Finland in relation to social policy and social structure.

In the 1980s and 1990s he worked with the comparative use of the life story approach, in particular in Russia, the Baltic and Northern Europe, and the question of men's life (and life stories) in Finland. He has participated in the organization of several autobiographical collections for the "ordinary people" and used this material in his work. His best known theoretical contribution is a typology of Finnish generations in the 20th century. Another is the concept of happiness barrier, which denotes the tendency to present one's life as much happier than it really is.

Recently (2006), he has started a Finnish project (with European comparative data) about the interactions between the baby boomer generation with both its parents and children. He has also become interested in theory of evolution and evolutionary sociology, and has been President of the Darwin Society in Finland.

He is also full member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences from 1995.

He has translated and introduced Pierre Bourdieu's Questions de sociologie, into Finnish.

He has published more than 200 scientific books and articles.

[edit] Publications

Welfare Theory and Social Policy. A Study in Policy Science. Commentationes Scientiarum Socialium, 4.1973 Societas Scientiarum Fennica Helsinki 1973,
Life Stories of Social Changes: Four Generations of Finland, in International Journal of Oral History No 3.1985, 179-190.
Behind the Happiness Barrier. Social Indicators Research 20 (1988),
(with Keijo Rahkonen): The Field of Intellectuals. The Case of Finland. International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, Vol 30 (No 2, Oct 1993), 154-172,
300 000 yuppies? Mobile phones in Finland. Telecommunications Policy, August 1993, 446-456,
European lives: The question of cultural comparisons through life stories. Auto/Biography 2 1993
Elina Haavio-Mannila, J.P. Roos and Osmo Kontula: Familienorientierung, Liberalisierung und Ambivalenz im Sexualleben dreier Generationen in Finnland, in B. Nauck ja C. Onnen-Isemann (hrsg) Familie im Brennpunkt von Wissenschaft und Forschung. Luchterhand 1995
Miserable men: Finnish men's life stories in a European perspective, in Christa Hämmerle (ed) Plurality and individuality. Autobiographical cultures in Europe, Vienna 1995
(with Elina Haavio-Mannila and Osmo Kontula): Repression, revolution and ambivalence. Sexual life in three generations. Acta Sociologica 4.1996
(with Tommi Hoikkala): Elämänpolitiikka (Life Politics) Gaudeamus 1998
(with Keijo Rahkonen) In Search of the Finnish New Middle Class, in Derek Robbins (ed) Pierre Bourdieu, Vol 4, London 2000,
Reality or nothing. False and repressed memories in autobiography, in Kim Lacy Rogers et al (ed): Trauma and Life Stories. International perspectives. Memory and Narrative 2, London 2000
Sociology and Life Writing, in Margaretta Jolly (ed): Encyclopedia of Life Writing, (Vol 2) 2001
(with Tommi Hoikkala and Semi Purhonen) The baby boomers, life's turning points and generational consciousness , in June Edmunds and Bryan Turner (eds) Generational Consciousness, Narrative, and Politics, Rowman and Littlefield 2002
The Consequences of the crisis of the 1990s to the Nordic Welfare State: Finland and Sweden in Arno Tausch (ed): The three pillars of wisdom? A reader on globalization, World Bank pension models and welfare society. Nova Science 2003
with Anna Rotkirch and Elina Haavio-Mannila) Do rich men have more sex? Gender, capital and sexual activity in four countries, in Kollind, A-K & A.Peterson (eds): Thoughts on family, gender, generation and class.Göteborg, 2003.
Context, Authenticity, Referentiality, Reflexivity; Back to Basics in Autobiography, in Robert Lee Miller (ed): Biographical Research Methods. Volume Four: Disputes and Concerns in Biographical Research. Sage Publications, London 2005
with Semi Purhonen): Näkökulmia Pierre Bourdieun sosiologiaan (Perspectives to Pierre Bourdieu' sociology). Vastapaino Publishers, Tampere 2006
The 'Arctic Bourdieu': Four theses from the Nordic countries, Sosiologiskt Årsbok 3-4.2006, 87-102