Elina Westinen
Biographic Data
| ID | 339488 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elina Westinen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elina |
| FAMILY NAME | Westinen |
| SIGNATURE | WESTINEN E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Jyväskylä |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1071-8871 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
“It is the Soundtrack for my Life” – Cinematic Construction of Self- Identity Through Music Listening
Transitional changes in youth are directing young people to ponder about themselves and who they want to become. Previous research has largely focused on identity construction as a psychosocial process, overlooking the way these processes are situated in our everyday life. This study explores identity construction processes in young people's everyday lives through music listening within the framework of musical affordances. We conducted interview…
Prosecutors charge me, police watch after me”—The intertwining of authenticity, crime, and gang life in Finnish ‘gangsta rap’ music
This article delves into Finnish ‘gangsta rap’, from the perspective of authenticity, a key trope in translocal hip hop culture. More specifically, we analyse four Finnish ‘gangsta rap’ videos and their lyrics by artists who received considerable attention in the Finnish media during 2021–2022. While the media argue that we are facing a new situation of commodified gang violence mediated by ‘gangsta rap’ – or, to be precise, drill-influenced musi…
Release the Dogs
US hip-hop culture has cherished pitbulls and dogfighting and highlighted the aggressive image of pitbulls. As hip-hop has spread across the world, pitbulls and the cultural imagery and meanings they carry have traveled as part of globalized culture. This article studies pitbulls’ intra-active agency in Finnish rap music videos with the method of diffractive reading. The videos are categorized into two types: In one type of video, the dogs are ma…
Politics of Race, Belonging and Community in Yeboyah's music video 'Elovena
The Elovena maiden is, for some, one of the most important cultural symbols of the Finnish identity. This character has traditionally been portrayed as a blond, blue-eyed white woman and repeatedly used in artistic and commercial contexts. In this article, we explore how a Finnish-Ghanaian rapper Yeboyah's 'Elovena' music video, as part of the Elovena visual EP (2019), constructs and negotiates race, belonging, and community. Moreover, we investi…
Sociolinguistic upsets and people of color in social media performances
Particularly since the refugee "reception crisis" in 2015, Finland has started transforming into a more diverse and multicultural society. These societal changes have also been accompanied by sociolinguistic change, as well as language ideological debates and tensions, often manifesting in explicitly racist and xenophobic bursts of upset. In this article, our focus is on social media as a space where such societal and sociolinguistic upsets are a…
Introduction
This introductory article opens the thematic issue Spaces of Upset in the Nordic Region. It introduces the contributions of the issue, outlines the concepts that unite them, and discusses the sociolinguistic area in which they are set: the Nordic region. Centering on Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the article offers an overview of some of the sociolinguistic, ideological and political characteristics of the region and the countries it comprises. Th…
Migrant rap in the periphery
Focusing on a YouTube performance by an emergent Finnish Somali rapper and the audience responses it has generated, this paper looks at ways in which rap music engages with the issue of belonging. Drawing on recent theorizations of belonging as a multi-dimensional, contingent and fluid process, along with sociolinguistic work on globalization and superdiversity, Finnish hip hop culture and popular cultural practices in social media, the paper inv…
Rapping the 'Better folk
I be da reel gansta”—A Finnish footballer’s Twitter writing and metapragmatic evaluations of authenticity
Further notes on sociolinguistic scales
This short paper seeks to reformulate and refine the notion of sociolinguistic scales as relative scope of understandability, thus drawing the notion fully into the realm of semiotics, rather than in the rather unproductive sphere of spatiotemporal and distributional interpretation where it has been deployed. Differences in scope of understandability are differences in the presupposability of signs, and such differences are not equivalent but str…
Further notes on sociolinguistic scales
This short paper seeks to reformulate and refine the notion of sociolinguistic scales as relative scope of understandability, thus drawing the notion fully into the realm of semiotics, rather than in the rather unproductive sphere of spatiotemporal and distributional interpretation where it has been deployed. Differences in scope of understandability are differences in the presupposability of signs, and such differences are not equivalent but str…
I be da reel gansta”—A Finnish footballer’s Twitter writing and metapragmatic evaluations of authenticity
Rapping the 'Better folk
Sociolinguistic upsets and people of color in social media performances
Particularly since the refugee "reception crisis" in 2015, Finland has started transforming into a more diverse and multicultural society. These societal changes have also been accompanied by sociolinguistic change, as well as language ideological debates and tensions, often manifesting in explicitly racist and xenophobic bursts of upset. In this article, our focus is on social media as a space where such societal and sociolinguistic upsets are a…
I be da reel gansta”—A Finnish footballer’s Twitter writing and metapragmatic evaluations of authenticity
Further notes on sociolinguistic scales
This short paper seeks to reformulate and refine the notion of sociolinguistic scales as relative scope of understandability, thus drawing the notion fully into the realm of semiotics, rather than in the rather unproductive sphere of spatiotemporal and distributional interpretation where it has been deployed. Differences in scope of understandability are differences in the presupposability of signs, and such differences are not equivalent but str…
Migrant rap in the periphery
Focusing on a YouTube performance by an emergent Finnish Somali rapper and the audience responses it has generated, this paper looks at ways in which rap music engages with the issue of belonging. Drawing on recent theorizations of belonging as a multi-dimensional, contingent and fluid process, along with sociolinguistic work on globalization and superdiversity, Finnish hip hop culture and popular cultural practices in social media, the paper inv…
Rapping the 'Better folk
Sociolinguistic upsets and people of color in social media performances
Particularly since the refugee "reception crisis" in 2015, Finland has started transforming into a more diverse and multicultural society. These societal changes have also been accompanied by sociolinguistic change, as well as language ideological debates and tensions, often manifesting in explicitly racist and xenophobic bursts of upset. In this article, our focus is on social media as a space where such societal and sociolinguistic upsets are a…
Introduction
This introductory article opens the thematic issue Spaces of Upset in the Nordic Region. It introduces the contributions of the issue, outlines the concepts that unite them, and discusses the sociolinguistic area in which they are set: the Nordic region. Centering on Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the article offers an overview of some of the sociolinguistic, ideological and political characteristics of the region and the countries it comprises. Th…
Politics of Race, Belonging and Community in Yeboyah's music video 'Elovena
The Elovena maiden is, for some, one of the most important cultural symbols of the Finnish identity. This character has traditionally been portrayed as a blond, blue-eyed white woman and repeatedly used in artistic and commercial contexts. In this article, we explore how a Finnish-Ghanaian rapper Yeboyah's 'Elovena' music video, as part of the Elovena visual EP (2019), constructs and negotiates race, belonging, and community. Moreover, we investi…
Prosecutors charge me, police watch after me”—The intertwining of authenticity, crime, and gang life in Finnish ‘gangsta rap’ music
This article delves into Finnish ‘gangsta rap’, from the perspective of authenticity, a key trope in translocal hip hop culture. More specifically, we analyse four Finnish ‘gangsta rap’ videos and their lyrics by artists who received considerable attention in the Finnish media during 2021–2022. While the media argue that we are facing a new situation of commodified gang violence mediated by ‘gangsta rap’ – or, to be precise, drill-influenced musi…
Release the Dogs
US hip-hop culture has cherished pitbulls and dogfighting and highlighted the aggressive image of pitbulls. As hip-hop has spread across the world, pitbulls and the cultural imagery and meanings they carry have traveled as part of globalized culture. This article studies pitbulls’ intra-active agency in Finnish rap music videos with the method of diffractive reading. The videos are categorized into two types: In one type of video, the dogs are ma…
“It is the Soundtrack for my Life” – Cinematic Construction of Self- Identity Through Music Listening
Transitional changes in youth are directing young people to ponder about themselves and who they want to become. Previous research has largely focused on identity construction as a psychosocial process, overlooking the way these processes are situated in our everyday life. This study explores identity construction processes in young people's everyday lives through music listening within the framework of musical affordances. We conducted interview…
Sociology (9 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Linguistics (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Media studies (4 works) · Anthropology (3 works)