The most recent special issue of Kulttuurintutkimus – Kulturstudier, the leading Finnish multicultural journal in cultural studies that I’m currently an editor-in-chief of, deals with quantification and measurability – it is called “the cultures of measurement”.

In times of neoliberalism, requirements of measuring, hierarchizing and ranking has come to permeate every sector of society, ranging from objects as different as academic publications and bodily activities, or reading and racism. In this issue, co-edited with two guest editors, professor Sirpa Lappalainen and university lecturer Maija Korhonen from the University of Eastern Finland, we inquired into what happens if – and when – measurability becomes structuralized, ubiquitous and unquestioned as a norm.

The research articles of the issue, written in Finnish, approach self-tracking, measuring subjects and individuality in social media, assumptions of ability in educational policy, and data-driven health care. In addition, the issue includes an interview with Virginia Eubanks, a political scientist and the author of the (still) highly topical book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (2018).

I’m glad that Sirpa and Maija contacted us and proposed this idea, based on a series of lectures that they had organized at the University of Eastern Finland. I had originally a special issue of algorithmic cultures in mind, but this issue outlines an equally interesting framework for critically examining the cultures we are living in.

The discussion on this topic is such a relevant and topical that we hope that it doesn’t stop here. Together with the Society for Cultural Studies in Finland, we are at least planning a related panel discussion to the popular-science festival The Night of Science in January in Helsinki.

Finally, it deserves to be mentioned that the journal Kulttuurintutkimus – Kulturstudier is from now on also welcoming manuscripts in Swedish, the second official language of Finland. Nevertheless, accepted articles need to focus on cultures and cultural phenomena in Finland. We made this decision to be able to widen our perspectives of the cultural landscape in Finland, a country with a bilingual profile. Publishing in Swedish not only extends the scope of experiences reported but also makes it possible for a wider circle of researchers to publish research that is, besides, more accessible outside Finland. The author instructions in Swedish can be accessed here.