Juha Antero Vuori
My main research interests have been within critical studies of security, particularly in the development of securitization theory through speech act logic and semiotics. In empirical terms, my research has mainly been on the People's Republic of China. I have also delved into issues that relate to nuclear weapons, and popular culture and world politics. In recent years, I have focused on methodological issues, and the international political sociology of colour-use in relation to security.
Subjects: Asian Studies, Military & Security Studies
Biography
Juha A. Vuori is Professor of World Politics (locum tenens) at the Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, and an Adjunct Professor (Docent) of International Politics at the University of Tampere School of Management, both in Finland. His main research focus has been on the critical development of securitization theory through illocutionary logic, semiotics, and the application of the approach to the People’s Republic of China. In recent years he has focused on methodological issues in relation to critical studies of security and the international political sociology of colour-use. He is a former president of the Finnish International Studies Association and former editor-in-chief of Kosmopolis. He is the author of Critical Security and Chinese Politics: the Anti-Falungong Campaign (Routledge), and co-author of A History of the People’s Republic of China (in Finnish; Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press). He has edited a number of books and published in journals such as European Journal of International Relations, Security Dialogue, and Asian Journal of Political Science.Education
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Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Turku, 2011
Licentiate of Social Sciences (UK PhD equiv.), U. Turku 2006
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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International/World Politics, Critical Studies of Security, Securitization Theory, China Studies, Nuclear Weapons, Speech Act Theory, Semiotics
Books
Articles
Paint it black: Colours and the social meaning of the battlefield
Published: Apr 08, 2015 by European Journal of International Relations
Authors: Xavier Guillaume, Rune S. Andersen, Juha A. Vuori
We argue that the shift in the use of colours in military battlefield uniforms, from conspicuously colourful to camouflaged and blending in or disrupting shapes, can be seen to work as a semiotic vehicle to understand societal meanings attached to the battlefield. Arguing through a semiotic analysis of colour-use, we examine colour-use on military battlefield uniforms in light of how imaginaries and practices of the battlefield evolve.
A Timely Prophet? The Doomsday Clock as a Visualization of Securitization Moves
Published: Jan 06, 2010 by Security Dialogue 41(3): 255–277
Authors: Vuori, Juha A.
Subjects:
Military & Security Studies
The present article answers these calls by examining a longstanding process of securitization in which speech acts have been interwoven with a powerful symbol. The article reasons that while images and symbols can facilitate, or impede, securitization moves, it is difficult to fathom how images, without anchorage, could bring about securitization that would not have been institutionalized previously.
Regime Transition and the Chinese Politics of Technology
Published: Jan 03, 2009 by Asian Journal of Political Science 17:(1): 1-23
Authors: Paltemaa, Lauri and Vuori, Juha A.
The article employs the concepts of the politics of technology and regime transition for analysing the connection between political power and the application of technology in contemporary Chinese history.
Illocutionary Logic and Strands of Securitization
Published: Jan 03, 2008 by European Journal of International Relations 14(1): 65-99
Authors: Vuori, Juha A.
I argue that by explicating the concept of securitization through illocutionary logic, it can be utilized to study security politics in non-democratic contexts in addition to the favoured liberal democratic one, where the majority of empirical analysis has been conducted so far. In addition, I present clarifications to the concepts of 'audiences' and 'special politics' used in the theory. The theoretical discussion is illustrated with examples from the Chinese political system.
How Cheap Is Identity Talk?
Published: Jan 09, 2006 by Issues & Studies 42(3): 47-86
Authors: Paltemaa, Lauri and Vuori, Juha A.
This article approaches the repression and legitimization of main-land Chinese social movements through a framework that combines thet heories of identity frames and securitization.
Security as Justification An Analysis of Deng Xiaoping's Speech to the Martial L
Published: Jan 06, 2003 by Politologiske Studier 6(2): 105-118
Authors: Vuori, Juha A.
The article takes a micro-level look at the construction of security in the PRC by analysing Deng Xiaoping’s first speech after the Tiananmen incident in 1989. The author proposes that the reproduction or post-hoc construction of security is a specific variant of securitization.