Joonas S. Martikainen

Hello! I am a researcher in critical social and political theory, focusing on phenomena such as political poverty, the loss of political agency, and the broader social conditions of political liberty. I make use of a variety of approaches, such as political phenomenology, contemporary critical social and political theory, and theories of participatory democracy. I also teach political philosophy and theory.

I am currently a postdoc researcher with the project Agency as Experience and Capacity at the Department of Philosophy in the University of Turku, Finland. Before starting in Turku, I worked at University of Helsinki in the project HARMAA: Indirect Philosophy as a Form of Resistance – How to Reinforce Individual Agency in the “Post-Truth” Era?.

My upcoming book Political Poverty: Losing Faith in Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) explores the ways that people in conteporary democratic societies can become informally disenfranchised and unable to effectively participate in democratic processes while remaining ostensibly included in them.

This site is hosted on Neocities, in opposition to, and as an alternative to exploitative social media platforms. I am committed to making internet about fun, freedom and discovery again, the principles behind what we knew as Web 1.0. Last updated in July 2025.