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My research has mainly focused on age and ageing. I have been interested in, among other things, daily mobility among older people, images of ageing, categorisation and ageism. In recent years, I have started to study age, culture and leisure. In 2021, I was a research coordinator at the Department of Social and Psychological Studies for applications on age and sustainability, which in 2022 led me to found the interdisciplinary research group Cri-Ageing (Critical Studies on Age and Ageing).  

One completed research project was on dance in later life. I studied dancing through a life course perspective, emotions in dance and intimacy. In a new smaller project, I  study the experiences to start dancing again after COVID-19 as well as experiences of beauty in dance. Recently, I have got involved in a project on welfare technology and elderly care. 

Methodologically, I have mainly worked with qualitative interviews, participatory research and discourse analysis approaches (including Foucualdian inspired perspectives).

I teach  courses in sociology and social psychology. Since 2021, I have been the programme coordinator for the Master's Programme in Critical Social Analysis.

In my research, I have collaborated with a large number of stakeholders at local, national and EU level. I co-organise the EMER network, which is a NOS-HS funded network on everyday resistance in the Nordic welfare state.

My thesis "To drive or not to drive. How older people, ageing and driving were discussed in Swedish transport policy" in 2008 was a discourse-analytical study on the construction of the category older drivers. During this time, I became interested in issues of ageism. After the dissertation, I spent several years at VTI (The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) researching mobility in addition to teaching in sociology at Linköping University. In 2014, I joined ������ý as a senior lecturer in sociology and have taught sociology and social psychology. My research here has focused on dance and ageing, while I have continued to write about e.g. ageism.

Engdahl, C. Heikkinen, S. & Arvidson, M. (2022). Hur kan vi förstå rörelse? Labans rörelseramverk, sociologi och didaktik. [How can we understand bodily movements? Laban's framework on movement, sociology and didactics]. Liber förlag. https://www.liber.se/produkt/hur-kan-vi-forsta-rorelse-25915

Heikkinen, S. & Mattsson, T. (2022). Relation. I C. Engdahl, S. Heikkinen & M. Arvidson (red). Hur kan vi förstå rörelse? Labans rörelseramverk, sociologi och didaktik. Liber förlag. https://www.liber.se/produkt/hur-kan-vi-forsta-rorelse-25915

Heikkinen, S. & Wilinska, M. (2022). Dancing my age: Emotions, interactions and bodily sensations. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.804888

Heikkinen S. (2021). Om ålder i ålderism-debatten [On age in the ageism debate]. I H. Jönson (red). Perspektiv på ålderism. Social Work Press, 25–42. https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/portalfiles/portal/90527736/Perspektiv_pa_a_lderism.pdf

Heikkinen, S. (2021). Dancing through life in a changing world: Life course, historical time and serious leisure. Leisure/Loisir, 45, 301–330. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14927713.2021.1874833

Heikkinen, S. & Alfredsson-Olsson, E. (2020). Happiness and perseverance. The interplay of emotional energies in gray dancing. I S. Kono, A. Beniwal, P. Baweja & K. Spracklen (red). Positive Sociology of Leisure: Contemporary Perspectives on Sociology of Leisure. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 29–48. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-41812-0_3

Alfredsson-Olsson, E. & Heikkinen, S. (2019) “I will never quit dancing”. The emotional experiences of social dancing among older persons. Journal of Aging Studies, 51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2019.100786

Isaksson, K. & Heikkinen, S. (2018). Sustainability Transitions at the Frontline. Lock-in and Potential for Change in the Local Planning Arena. Sustainability, 10(3) 10, 840, https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030840

Krekula, C., Arvidsson, M. Heikkinen, S., Henriksson, A. & Olsson, E. (2017). On gray dancing: Constructions of age-normality through choreography and temporal codes. Journal of Ageing Studies, 42, 38-45.

Heikkinen, S. (2017). Åldersbaserad ojämlikhet. Ålderism, childism och adultism. I C. Krekula & B. Johansson (red), Introduktion till kritiska åldersstudier, 81–94. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Krekula, C. & Heikkinen, S. (2014). Gästredaktörernas inledning: Med fokus på ålder som organiserande princip. Sociologisk forskning. 51, 5–13.

Heikkinen, S., Meng, A., Alauzet, A., Bell, D., Dankova, L. Kureckova, V., Lang, B. et al. (2013). Stakeholders and practices in the field of senior safety and mobility. WP 4, CONSOL project. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:754117/FULLTEXT01.pdf