Current research project
This research project aims to expand on recent theorization on shared emotional and we-experience by analyzing how such experiences may be supported, boosted, and enabled by social scaffolding practices and structures. As such, the research draws on phenomenological as well as socio-ontological theories on collective intentionality, and to a growing body of research on situated mind, environmental scaffolding, and affective niche construction. Consisting of three research articles, the study explores how: 1) Social interaction scaffolds, i.e., enables and boosts, emotion sharing in focused interaction (forthcoming in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences), 2) Socio-material structures and practices are used as scaffolds, i.e., support systems, in children’s communities to promote sense of togetherness, belongingness, sharing, and social participation, and 3) Children’s participation and agency in constructing shared (we-) spaces and patterns of (emotional) sharing and reciprocity. The guiding hypothesis of this theoretical study is that emotional sharing, sense of togetherness, and belonging are situationally scaffolded by both social and material environmental processes and structures, such as social interaction patterns and habits, shared material culture, and ideational factors such as cultural norms and rules of socio-emotional behavior. I argue, that these environmental elements support social cognitive and affective processes present in experiences of togetherness, belonging, and sharedness, and that such strong interdependent scaffolding relationships between two or more agents develops via mechanisms of social motivation and situated cognition. To support this thesis, I draw not only to philosophical theoretical sources, but also to empirical evidence in psychology, sociology, and childhood studies.
Research interests
My research interests span philosophical psychology, mind philosophies, 4E-cognition approaches, phenomenology, philosophy of education, and childhood studies. More specifically, I am interested in questions concerning emotional sharing, social cognition, skilled we-agency, extended cognition, and children’s experiences, agency, social participation, and social development.
References:
Rinne, I. (2024). Interpersonal scaffoldings for shared emotions : how social interaction supports emotional sharing. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.
Publications
Rinne, I. (forthcoming). Interpersonal scaffoldings for shared emotions: How social interaction supports emotional sharing. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.
Master’s thesis: ”Maan ja maailman kiista. Muoto–aine-käsiteparin uudelleenjäsentyminen Heideggerin Taideteoksen alkuperässä.” 24.4.2019.
Lectures and presentations
**“Affective “Our-ness”: Self-Other Demarcation in Emotional Sharing”, workshop presentation,19.8.2022, in Connecting with Others: Experiences of Sharing, Togetherness, Loneliness, and Demarcation, University of Jyväskyä, Jyväskylä
”Interpersonal Scaffoldings of Shared Emotions”, research seminar presentation, 10.5.2023, in Asymmetrical Encounters: Intersubjectivity and the Sense of Boundaries Research seminar, Ģֱ, Jyväskylä
“Interpersonal scaffoldings for affectivity”, researcher seminar presentation, 30.8.2023, in Asymmetrical Encounters: Intersubjectivity and the Sense of Boundaries Research seminar, Ģֱ, Jyväskylä
**“Reciprocal Interactions as Scaffoldings for Shared Emotional Experiences”, workshop presentation, 9.11.2023, in Shared Emotions and Emotions of Sharing: Variations of interpersonal experience, Ģֱ, Jyväskylä
“Childhood affective niche construction: Promoting togetherness, belonging, and agency among children in Montessori-playschools”, conference presentation,16.5.2024, in The X Conference on Childhood Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki
**“Affective Niche Construction and Children’s Agency in Childhood Communities”, conference presentation, 23.5.2024, in The “Other Side” of Scaffolding and Niche Construction, Ģֱ, Jyväskylä
**“Childhood We-Spaces: Children’s Expressions and Experiences of ‘We’”,. Research seminar presentation, 6.11.2024, in Beyond Cognition and Culture research interest group, The EGENIS Center for Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
**invited speaker
