About
Mikko Laamanen is Head of Research and Research Professor with the Technology and Sustainability group at Consumption Research Norway (SIFO). He holds a doctorate from Hanken School of Economics (Finland) and has held academic positions in Finland, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. He is affiliated with the Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI), the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, and the Center for Organizational Research at the University of California, Irvine.
Mikko is a theoretically driven scholar of consumer society whose research examines how consumers, technologies, organisations, and material infrastructures are intertwined in the formation and transformation of markets. Developing a relational and neo-materialist theory of consumption, his work connects everyday practices with broader transformations in political economy across two interrelated areas.
Market (re)organisation
Mikko analyses how markets are organised, stabilised, and contested through collective action, organisational innovation and alternative economic arrangements. His work explains how new market forms emerge from the margins and challenge dominant economic logics.
His research on time banks develops a partial organisation perspective on how exchange can be coordinated beyond formal market institutions and organisational structures while more recent studies of platform cooperatives shows how “change from the margins” strategies reconfigure value creation, competition and institutional arrangements in the platform economy.
Transformations of production and consumption
Mikko investigates how production and consumption are reshaped through digitalisation and sustainability transitions. His work focuses on platform-mediated, data-driven environments such as social media and digital marketplaces, examining how algorithmic systems structure participation, agency and vulnerability. This work advances a socio-technical perspective on contemporary platformised consumption, including the concept of ecologies of friction and analyses of resistance in data capitalism conceptualised as Algorithmic Luddism.
He examines consumption as a site of cultural production, including marketplace cultures such as drag, where identity, value, and exchange are co-produced through performative practices. At the same time, he analyses how sustainability practices are developed and realized within organisational networks, particularly in the arts and cultural sectors, and how such practices shape everyday organisational routines, relationships with audiences, and emerging forms of governance. Taken together, this work highlights how consumption functions as both an economic and a cultural process in contemporary consumer societies.
Academic leadership and public engagement
Mikko has extensive experience in research leadership and academic service. As Head of Research, he contributes to shaping research strategy and interdisciplinary collaboration at SIFO as well as leads the development of externally funded projects. He is actively engaged in the international academic community through editorial work, conference organisation, and leadership in scholarly networks, including coordinating the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on the Sociology of Consumption (RN05).
He has over 14 years of experience in higher education teaching. He contributes to doctoral education through PhD supervision and participation in international research training activities. His research engages closely with societal stakeholders and policy-relevant challenges related to digital markets, consumer vulnerability, sustainability and responsible consumption. He also has extensive experience in sustainability and outreach in the performing arts sector, working with organisations such as RESEO, Pearle*, and the European Festivals Association (EFA).
Field of study
Social movements Organizational theory Digitalization Sustainability Social practice theory Political consumption Platform economy
Research groups
Publications and research
Scientific publications
Reich, Clara Julia
;
Laamanen, Mikko
(2026).
Flat relationality in digital practices of belonging.
Consumption and Society.
https://doi.org/10.1332/27528499Y2025D000000062
Laamanen, Mikko
; Kok, Erlend;
Dulsrud, Arne
;
Slettemeås, Dag
(2025).
Digital agency and vulnerability: a study on young adult consumers in personalised advertising ecosystems.
Wilska, Terhi-Anna; Nyrhinen, Jussi (Ed.).
Young People in Digital Environments: Agency, Opportunities and Risks. p. 141-159.
Edward Elgar Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035329250.00019
Wahlen, Stefan; Forno, Francesca;
Laamanen, Mikko
(2024).
Neo-materialist movement organisations' scaling through strategies and consumer collective action: Comparing three European food movement scenes.
Jacobsen, Eivind; Strandbakken, Pål; Dulsrud, Arne; Skuland, Silje Elisabeth (Ed.).
Consumers and Consumption in Comparison (Volume 37). p. 93-113.
Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-631020240000037005
Charitsis, Vassilis;
Laamanen, Mikko
(2024).
When digital capitalism takes (on) the neighbourhood: Data activism meets place-based collective action.
Social Movement Studies.
Vol. 23.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2022.2123314
Laamanen, Mikko
; Campana, Mario; Micheli, Maria Rita; Venkatraman, Rohan; Duffy, Katherine
(2024).
Drag as Marketplace: Contemporary Cultures, Identities and Business.
ISBN: 9781529237443.
226 p.
Bristol University Press.
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3456037
Campana, Mario; Venkatraman, Rohan; Duffy, Katherine;
Laamanen, Mikko
; Micheli, Maria Rita
(2024).
Conclusion: Studying Drag Marketplace Cultures - Critical Reflections and Future Directions.
Laamanen, Mikko; Campana, Mario; Micheli, Maria Rita; Venkatraman, Rohan; Duffy, Katherine (Ed.).
Drag as Marketplace: Contemporary Cultures, Identities and Business. p. 169-186.
Bristol University Press.
https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529237474.ch009
Laamanen, Mikko
; Micheli, Maria Rita; Campana, Mario; Venkatraman, Rohan; Duffy, Katherine
(2024).
Introduction: What are Marketplace Cultures of Drag?.
Laamanen, Mikko; Campana, Mario; Micheli, Maria Rita; Venkatraman, Rohan; Duffy, Katherine (Ed.).
Drag as Marketplace: Contemporary Cultures, Identities and Business. p. 1-18.
Bristol University Press.
https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529237474.ch001
Charitsis, Vassilis;
Laamanen, Mikko
; Lehtiniemi, Tuukka
(2024).
Towards Algorithmic Luddism: class politics in data capitalism.
Information, Communication & Society.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2435996
Laamanen, Mikko
; Mikołajewska-Zając, Karolina
(2024).
Ecologies of friction in digital platform investment.
Information, Communication & Society.
Vol. 27.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2352631
Eckhardt, Giana M.; Atanasova, Aleksandrina;
Laamanen, Mikko
; Kittinger-Rosanelli, Christine
(2024).
Responsible Platforms: Aiming for Social Value Rather than Scale.
NIM Marketing Intelligence Review.
Vol. 16.
https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2024-0017
