This project seeks to map the values and worldviews of Finnish yoga practitioners. While the usual demographic profile of yoga practitioners is female, educated and liberal, recently very different politics have become increasingly visible in the yoga scene. This is exemplified by the rising trend of conspirituality – the coupling of New Age spirituality and conspiracy theories – where e.g., anti-vaccination attitudes are conflated with ideas of healing and wellness. This project uses a mixed methods approach to map the Finnish yoga scene, providing both quantitative and qualitative data and surveying the operation of values and ideologies at the levels of discourses, practices and personal experiences. While focusing on Finnish yoga as a case study, this project also furthers our understanding of wider societal trends, such as the rise of far right ideologies, nationalism, anti-feminism, as well as the influence of social media in political discourse.

2023

2027