Johanna Sofia Kristina Markkula
Biographic Data
| ID | 1286319 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Johanna Sofia Kristina Markkula |
| GIVEN NAMES | Johanna Sofia Kristina |
| FAMILY NAME | Markkula |
| SIGNATURE | MARKKULA J S K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7325-2135 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 7 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Siren call of the sea
In cultural studies, as in the social sciences, the sea and the ships that travel upon it have often been used as metaphors for conceptualizing various social, economic, political, and cultural processes, such as globalization, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism. Yet, the sea and ships are more than just metaphors–they are actual material and empirical objects central to the very processes that their metaphorical imagery depicts. This special …
Container Ships
Goods moved on board container ships constitute 70 percent of all world cargo by economic value, which makes container ships vital things in the broader agglomeration of contemporary global capitalism. These vessels are in themselves also containers of other forms of value: they on occasion store, move, and disperse noneconomic forms of social worth. Building on the insights of critical logistics studies and coupling them with anthropological ins…
The ship
When Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021, it dramatically brought to light the fragile dependency of global trade on maritime infrastructures. It also drew attention to ships as actors within this global system of mobility. In this article, I centre on the figure of the ship to reflect on maritime passages and blockages and the particular forms of sociality that…
Containing mobilities
This article uses ethnography from onboard container ships to show how seafarers as a workforce at the center of global capital circulation are increasingly confined inside their mobile worksites. Drawing on theories of the transformation of time and space as internal to the logic of globalization and capitalism, the article argues that the increased mobility of goods, as facilitated by developments in maritime logistics, has decreased the mobili…
Inside container economies
This introduction proposes an anthropology of global cargo circulation by placing the maritime shipping industry at the center of global capitalism. With “container economies” we refer to the maritime global circulation of cargo that is sustained by an undervalued labor force, dependent upon unstable logistics infrastructures and driven by speculative capital. Container economies, we argue, are produced by adding, moving, and destroying value thr…
We move the world
The mobilities literature often draws on a maritime vocabulary, but has more seldom engaged with the everyday lives of maritime workers. With ninety percent of all goods transported by sea, seafarers literally move the world. Since the 1970s, Filipino sailors in particular have emerged as the most important nationality within this global mobile labor force. Often facing discrimination, racialized representations and obstacles to social mobility o…
‘Any port in a storm’
This article discusses crisis, and responses to crisis, in the global maritime industry. In order to stay ‘afloat’ in recession times, ship owners increasingly opt for Flags of Convenience. During research aboard a mixed nationality crewed cargo ship, I observed how a local crisis of a flag change impacted on the ambience and social cohesion onboard, and how crewmembers responded by reinforcing ties to their families back home. By showing how cri…
We move the world
The mobilities literature often draws on a maritime vocabulary, but has more seldom engaged with the everyday lives of maritime workers. With ninety percent of all goods transported by sea, seafarers literally move the world. Since the 1970s, Filipino sailors in particular have emerged as the most important nationality within this global mobile labor force. Often facing discrimination, racialized representations and obstacles to social mobility o…
‘Any port in a storm’
This article discusses crisis, and responses to crisis, in the global maritime industry. In order to stay ‘afloat’ in recession times, ship owners increasingly opt for Flags of Convenience. During research aboard a mixed nationality crewed cargo ship, I observed how a local crisis of a flag change impacted on the ambience and social cohesion onboard, and how crewmembers responded by reinforcing ties to their families back home. By showing how cri…
Containing mobilities
This article uses ethnography from onboard container ships to show how seafarers as a workforce at the center of global capital circulation are increasingly confined inside their mobile worksites. Drawing on theories of the transformation of time and space as internal to the logic of globalization and capitalism, the article argues that the increased mobility of goods, as facilitated by developments in maritime logistics, has decreased the mobili…
Inside container economies
This introduction proposes an anthropology of global cargo circulation by placing the maritime shipping industry at the center of global capitalism. With “container economies” we refer to the maritime global circulation of cargo that is sustained by an undervalued labor force, dependent upon unstable logistics infrastructures and driven by speculative capital. Container economies, we argue, are produced by adding, moving, and destroying value thr…
We move the world
The mobilities literature often draws on a maritime vocabulary, but has more seldom engaged with the everyday lives of maritime workers. With ninety percent of all goods transported by sea, seafarers literally move the world. Since the 1970s, Filipino sailors in particular have emerged as the most important nationality within this global mobile labor force. Often facing discrimination, racialized representations and obstacles to social mobility o…
Container Ships
Goods moved on board container ships constitute 70 percent of all world cargo by economic value, which makes container ships vital things in the broader agglomeration of contemporary global capitalism. These vessels are in themselves also containers of other forms of value: they on occasion store, move, and disperse noneconomic forms of social worth. Building on the insights of critical logistics studies and coupling them with anthropological ins…
The ship
When Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021, it dramatically brought to light the fragile dependency of global trade on maritime infrastructures. It also drew attention to ships as actors within this global system of mobility. In this article, I centre on the figure of the ship to reflect on maritime passages and blockages and the particular forms of sociality that…
Siren call of the sea
In cultural studies, as in the social sciences, the sea and the ships that travel upon it have often been used as metaphors for conceptualizing various social, economic, political, and cultural processes, such as globalization, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism. Yet, the sea and ships are more than just metaphors–they are actual material and empirical objects central to the very processes that their metaphorical imagery depicts. This special …
Sociology (6 works) · Business (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Engineering (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Economy (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Capitalism (3 works) · Economic geography (3 works)