Anni Kajanus
Biographic Data
| ID | 669144 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anni Kajanus |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anni |
| FAMILY NAME | Kajanus |
| SIGNATURE | KAJANUS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Helsinki |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7942-6308 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
A sea of anchors
This commentary reflects on the contemporary trajectories and futures of psychological anthropology through the metaphor of a “sea of anchors.” Rather than reproducing binaries of center and margin, we conceptualize “anchors” as temporary and dynamic points of orientation through which theories, methods, collaborations, and infrastructures condense and circulate unevenly across regions and disciplines. Building on contributions to the 2026 Ethos …
Irritation, Cooperation, and Human Relationships
Irritation, defined here as the conscious experience of feeling annoyed, plays a significant role in human relationships of many kinds. Indeed, it seems that some of our most important relationships persist for decades in a state of chronic everyday irritation. In this article, we examine this striking yet understudied phenomenon, drawing on cross-cultural evidence, including a set of interviews from China, Finland, and the United States about ir…
Learning not to help in Nanjing and London–Cultural elaboration of empathy in childhood
Helping is one of the key features of human sociality. The ethnographic record is pervaded by accounts of people doing things with and for each other from an early age. Developmental psychology has shown that by the time children begin to walk and talk, they already display helpful behavior in many situations. These findings suggest that the propensity to help is biologically based, rather than directly taught. While doing research on children's …
Mainstream psychological and behavioural science meets anthropology
Transformative behavioural change refers to a profound and often radical shift in individuals’ actions and values. Mainstream WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic) psychological and behavioural science, which is the dominant research tradition in Euro‐American contexts, has increasingly recognized such change as critical to tackling global challenges such as the climate crisis and widening social inequalities. However, t…
Prestige and dominance in egalitarian and hierarchical societies
We examined how children reason about dominance and prestige in Colombia, Finland, and the USA, contexts that vary in terms of societal inequality and hierarchical organization. We tested 496 children aged 4–11 years old to determine whether they: i) recognized and discriminated between dominance and prestige, ii) preferred to learn from a dominant or prestigious character, iii) assigned leadership to a dominant or prestigious character, and iv) …
A developmental perspective on social status
From an early age, children become attuned to processes of social power in their environment. Findings from cognitive sciences suggest that the ability to discern hierarchical relationships, as well as coercive and non-coercive processes that give rise to them, rests on evolved cognitive capacities. Yet reasoning about social relations is always already a cultural process. Anthropological theory routinely deploys terms such as 'power' and 'hierar…
Children's understanding of dominance and prestige in China and the UK
Mutualistic vs. zero-sum modes of competition - a comparative study of children's competitive motivations and behaviours in China
This article investigates the development of competitive motivation in children in the context of the extreme emphasis on competition in post-reform Chinese society. Drawing from ethnographic and experimental approaches, it compares the competitive modes of children in an urban middle-class school and a semi-rural working-class school. A conceptual model is developed that distinguishes between zero-sum and mutualistic modes of competition, and th…
Chinese Student Migration, Gender and Family
This book explores the children of Chinese single-child families who go to study abroad and in particular the increase in Chinese familial investment in daughters' education within the wider socio-mor
Overthrowing the First Mountain
This article uses Mahler and Pessar's (2001, 2006) model of “geography of power” to interrogate how the general dynamic of Chinese student migration generates a variety of experiences at the individual level. Each Chinese student-migrant embarks on their journey from a different position vis-à-vis the flows and interconnections of the international education market. Some of them set out to achieve concrete goals, while others are motivated by a m…
Overthrowing the First Mountain
This article uses Mahler and Pessar's (2001, 2006) model of “geography of power” to interrogate how the general dynamic of Chinese student migration generates a variety of experiences at the individual level. Each Chinese student-migrant embarks on their journey from a different position vis-à-vis the flows and interconnections of the international education market. Some of them set out to achieve concrete goals, while others are motivated by a m…
A developmental perspective on social status
From an early age, children become attuned to processes of social power in their environment. Findings from cognitive sciences suggest that the ability to discern hierarchical relationships, as well as coercive and non-coercive processes that give rise to them, rests on evolved cognitive capacities. Yet reasoning about social relations is always already a cultural process. Anthropological theory routinely deploys terms such as 'power' and 'hierar…
Chinese Student Migration, Gender and Family
This book explores the children of Chinese single-child families who go to study abroad and in particular the increase in Chinese familial investment in daughters' education within the wider socio-mor
Overthrowing the First Mountain
This article uses Mahler and Pessar's (2001, 2006) model of “geography of power” to interrogate how the general dynamic of Chinese student migration generates a variety of experiences at the individual level. Each Chinese student-migrant embarks on their journey from a different position vis-à-vis the flows and interconnections of the international education market. Some of them set out to achieve concrete goals, while others are motivated by a m…
Mutualistic vs. zero-sum modes of competition - a comparative study of children's competitive motivations and behaviours in China
This article investigates the development of competitive motivation in children in the context of the extreme emphasis on competition in post-reform Chinese society. Drawing from ethnographic and experimental approaches, it compares the competitive modes of children in an urban middle-class school and a semi-rural working-class school. A conceptual model is developed that distinguishes between zero-sum and mutualistic modes of competition, and th…
Children's understanding of dominance and prestige in China and the UK
Prestige and dominance in egalitarian and hierarchical societies
We examined how children reason about dominance and prestige in Colombia, Finland, and the USA, contexts that vary in terms of societal inequality and hierarchical organization. We tested 496 children aged 4–11 years old to determine whether they: i) recognized and discriminated between dominance and prestige, ii) preferred to learn from a dominant or prestigious character, iii) assigned leadership to a dominant or prestigious character, and iv) …
A developmental perspective on social status
From an early age, children become attuned to processes of social power in their environment. Findings from cognitive sciences suggest that the ability to discern hierarchical relationships, as well as coercive and non-coercive processes that give rise to them, rests on evolved cognitive capacities. Yet reasoning about social relations is always already a cultural process. Anthropological theory routinely deploys terms such as 'power' and 'hierar…
Mainstream psychological and behavioural science meets anthropology
Transformative behavioural change refers to a profound and often radical shift in individuals’ actions and values. Mainstream WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic) psychological and behavioural science, which is the dominant research tradition in Euro‐American contexts, has increasingly recognized such change as critical to tackling global challenges such as the climate crisis and widening social inequalities. However, t…
A sea of anchors
This commentary reflects on the contemporary trajectories and futures of psychological anthropology through the metaphor of a “sea of anchors.” Rather than reproducing binaries of center and margin, we conceptualize “anchors” as temporary and dynamic points of orientation through which theories, methods, collaborations, and infrastructures condense and circulate unevenly across regions and disciplines. Building on contributions to the 2026 Ethos …
Irritation, Cooperation, and Human Relationships
Irritation, defined here as the conscious experience of feeling annoyed, plays a significant role in human relationships of many kinds. Indeed, it seems that some of our most important relationships persist for decades in a state of chronic everyday irritation. In this article, we examine this striking yet understudied phenomenon, drawing on cross-cultural evidence, including a set of interviews from China, Finland, and the United States about ir…
Learning not to help in Nanjing and London–Cultural elaboration of empathy in childhood
Helping is one of the key features of human sociality. The ethnographic record is pervaded by accounts of people doing things with and for each other from an early age. Developmental psychology has shown that by the time children begin to walk and talk, they already display helpful behavior in many situations. These findings suggest that the propensity to help is biologically based, rather than directly taught. While doing research on children's …
Cultural Differences and Values (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Political science (5 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Biology (3 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (3 works) · Ethnography (3 works) · Social Psychology (3 works) · Social science (3 works)