Kari Palonen

Kari Palonen is a Finnish political scientist known for his contributions to conceptual history and the study of political rhetoric. He is a professor emeritus of Political Science at the University of Jyväskylä.

Academic career

Palonen was a docent of political science at the University of Helsinki (1976) and the University of Oulu (1977). He later became an associate professor at the University of Jyväskylä (1983–1993) and subsequently served as a full professor of political science at the same institution from 1993 to 2014. Since 2015, he has held the title of professor emeritus.

He serves as the director of the Finnish Centre of Political Thought and Conceptual Change from 2006 to 2011. He is also the editor-in-chief of Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory. In 1998, he co-founded the History of Political and Social Concepts Group with Melvin Richter.

Palonen has held several academic positions, including serving as an Academy of Finland professor from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2008 to 2012. He is the Aby Warburg Professor at Warburg Haus, Hamburg, in 2006. From 2003 to 2005, he chaired the European Science Foundation Scientific's Network The Politics and History of European Democratisation (PHED). In 2002–2003, he was a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden.

Honors

Palonen has been a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters since 2005. In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, where he holds Life Membership. In 2024, he was elected as a member of the Academia Europaea.

Selected Publications Politik als parlamentarischer Begriff. Perspektiven aus den Plenardebatten des Deutschen Bundestags (2021) The Struggle with Time. A Conceptual History of Politics as an Activity (2006, 2nd ed. 2014) Rhetorik des Unbeliebten. Lobreden auf Politiker im Zeitalter der Demokratie (2012) Parliamentary Thinking. Procedure, Rhetoric and Time (2018) The Politics of Parliamentary Procedure. The Formation of the Westminster Procedure as a Parliamentary Ideal Type (2014) A Political Style of Thinking. Essays on Max Weber (2017) Politics and Conceptual Histories: Rhetorical and Temporal Perspectives (2014) "Objektivität" als faires Spiel. Wissenschaft als Politik bei Max Weber (2010)