46 academic researchers from different disciplines work at Puistokatu 4, with building for an ecologically sustainable future at the heart of their research. The researcher members work in the Science Attic on the third floor of Puistokatu 4.
Read more about our researcher members below!
“My postdoctoral research is designed to contribute to sustainability transitions by examining the challenges and successful strategies of art-science collaborations that address complex environmental issues, particularly within the context of the Baltic Sea. A key objective is to develop and implement artscience mediation tools to enhance interdisciplinary research processes focused on natural systems.”
“Currently, my research is aimed at developing an understanding of the social sustainability of socio-technical systems. I am particularly interested in how regional communities and residents benefit most from renewable energy. The energy revolution will not deliver a sustainable future if we repeat the same mistakes as in our other industrial policies, namely forgetting about people and communities, their vitality and benefits, and the environment.”
“I study post-growth economic models, focusing on technologies and innovations needed in them, how they are innovated, who owns them, and how they can be leveraged through innovation policy. Previously I have of governance of sustainability transitions in Finnish city management and in Indigenous communities in Ecuador. Currently, I am trying to understand what kinds of organizations, technologies, and innovations we need to create a more sustainable way of living.”
“In my dissertation, I study climate technologies such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), and the social impacts and regulation of recycling batteries and different materials. I explore how these technologies can (or can’t?) be implemented in a sustainable way and what the bottlenecks are to their deployment. My research does not only focus on ecological sustainability, but I also look at the linkages with social sustainability and at the systemic level.”
“In my dissertation, I analyze the communication of organizational purpose, which seeks to justify the existence and actions of business organizations. This communicative phenomenon of ‘purposezation’ has significantly increased in recent years due to global ecological and social crises. In my research, I approach the communication of purpose and CSR communication from the perspective of diverse stakeholders and analyze how power relations are constructed and renewed through this communication.”
“My current research revolves around natural fibers, specifically bamboo, as a bioeconomic solution for products labeled as sustainable. Bamboo is generally considered more ecologically sustainable than other synthetic and organic materials, and global demand is increasing. My research aims to understand how bamboo’s everyday uses and values are changing in the rural communities that harvest it and the impacts of the so-called bamboo boom.”
“I am researching how people in Finland find wellbeing amid social, digital, and environmental change, particularly in later life. Through ethnographic fieldwork and artistic methods I explore the link between environmental care and social wellbeing. I will share the results in an exhibition and graphic non-fiction book. My previous research was in Japan and I am the author of Ageing with Smartphones in Japan.”
“I am currently working on understanding urban biodiversity and the multiple values and value conflicts associated with it. I also research and develop creative and embodied learning methods for sustainability education. I often apply cross-disciplinary research, facilitate workshops and use creative methods in my research.”
“I am exploring new research paths and practical solutions for nature-inclusive, regenerative solar energy production. My research bridges physics, engineering, ecology, and art to ask how we might design energy systems in ways that foster ecologically sustainable relationships and interactions with other species.”
“My research examines the role of individuals in the sustainability transition through consumption-based emissions accounting. I study individuals’ potential to reduce consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions by analyzing the interplay between individual and societal actions and assessing individuals’ capacities for emissions reductions. While solving the climate crisis cannot be placed solely on individuals, my research aims to highlight their agency and potential contributions to fostering a more sustainable future.”
“As an environmental social scientist and ethnographer, I promote ecofeminist thinking and action for a more just world. I work as a university researcher at the in my Transformative Work Practices project, which explores work as a potentially transformative force in contemporary societies. I co-founded the Untame research collective, a Finnish collaborative network of social and environmental scientists focusing on paradigm shifts.”
“In my research, I aim to examine the impacts of climate change on society and well-being, and to provide researched data on attitudes, experiences and feelings related to climate change. My research interests also relate to how behavioural science can be used to inform the design and implementation of climate action.”
“In my research group, we imagine a transformation of our mobility systems with the goal of creating and serving more coherent, ecologically sustainable and resilient, (more than) human-centered communities. The focus of my doctoral research is on the role of bottom-up movements, such as protests or civil disobedience, and how they can steer the desired change. I look at activism and how it helps or can help shape existing planning paradigms.”
“In my research, I examine the ecological and social (ecosocial) sustainability of international higher education, particularly from the perspectives of a European university alliance and slow academic mobility. A central aspect of my research design is to stimulate ecosocially just development through research and, in doing so, promote planetary well-being more broadly in society. In my research, I apply ethnographic methods and discourse analysis.”
“I study how journalistic publicity could be produced within planetary boundaries. My research focuses on the material dimensions of journalistic publicity production, such as the use of natural resources, biodiversity loss, CO2 emissions, and various types of waste. I am particularly interested in how the working conditions, operational models, and production methods of the media industry should change to make journalistic publicity production materially sustainable for the environment.”
“In my dissertation, I study the environmental impact assessment process (EIA) in the sustainability transition. The theme of the dissertation is the relationship between the information about environment and the law. There is a huge amount of research on the environment and the effects of human activity on the environment and it is constantly increasing, but information about the environment as such is not transmitted to legal mechanisms.”
“I am researching a Finnish activation policy scheme called Rehabilitative Work Experience. I am interested to examine ecological and social potentials in the very service, that could contribute to a transition towards a more sustainable society. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to address the factors, which might hinder or obstruct the implementation of ecosocial potentials. Hence the Finnish activation politics will be also scrutinized.”
“I conduct artistic research on human-soil relations in the context of regenerative thinking and practices. The research is based on dialogic fieldwork with regenerative farmers and soil and climate scientists. I explore the topic through artistic work, perception studies, and environmental aesthetics. I also consider the art-historical continuum from land art to contemporary regenerative art forms.”
“The circular economy is one of the key transitions to steer society in a more ecologically sustainable direction. As a sociologist, I am particularly interested in what kind of citizens the circular economy needs to work: what is expected of us as citizens to make the transition possible. Critical social science research is needed to examine sustainability transitions.”
“Complex and conflicting environmental problems require the ability of different actors in society to work together to solve problems, i.e. to have a collaborative capacity. The aim of my research is to increase our understanding of what such capacity is and where and how it develops in practice. My research material consists of processes that have successfully resolved very challenging situations.”
“In my dissertation, I research critically the prevailing ideology that higher education produces and maintains. What is considered a normative and desirable lifestyle? What impact does our lifestyle have on global eco-crisis and social justice? I am also a project researcher in a planetary well-being project, through which I examine how updating the concept of well-being could promote a sustainability transition.”
“I am studying media representations of climate change and economic growth and analysing their interrelationship using AI tools. I would like to contribute to society by uncovering narratives and possible thought biases in the public debate on the climate-economy axis. I hope to help the Puistokatu 4 community at least in the adoption and use of machine learning and AI research methods related to these themes.”
“In my research, I’m interested in threatening interaction experiences and the challenges and dilemmas involved in reporting them. In interaction, the perception of threat plays an essential role in preventing individuals from taking social risks, such as expressing their concerns, suggesting new ideas, or challenging the status quo. A central goal of my research is to create more equal opportunities for reporting these experiences, making it possible for voices crucial for ecological sustainability to be heard.”
“Knowledge co-production is widely advocated as essential for advancing sustainability transformations, as it brings together diverse societal actors and knowledge systems to produce actionable insights to address complex challenges. My dissertation critically examines and further develops knowledge co-production methods in environmental governance, empirically focusing on the Transition Arena method.”
“Forests are more than just trees—they’re places of shared interest, debate, and sometimes, conflict. My research focuses on forest governance, with a special interest in disputes over forest use. I analyze characteristics and possible patterns in forest conflicts. Right now, I’m exploring bridging topics that could connect different perspectives in the EU’s forest bioenergy discussions. I believe that dialogue is key to balancing nature, people, and policy for a more sustainable future.”
“I study the sufficiency perspective in policy-making and how sufficiency is understood in the environmental movement, more precisely among the activists in the Finnish sufficiency movement. My research focuses on integrating ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approaches.”
“I study environmental conflicts and conflict resolution. My current theme is the tensions and conflicts of the so-called green transition. In addition to conflict resolution, I attach importance to conflict anticipation and the development of collaborative approaches to complex sustainability challenges. My work also has an impact through commissions and interventions at Akordi Oy.”
“I study the relationship between humans and freshwater, focusing on the global dimensions of water-related sustainability challenges. I hope that my research will offer new perspectives on how we perceive water and the ways we interact with it: that water is recognized as a critical component of the Earth system, not merely a local or regional resource, and that we acknowledge the profound ways in which we alter the water cycle—and, in doing so, influence the processes that regulate our planet’s stability.”
“Waste is one of the most pressing ecological problems today. For a more sustainable future to be possible, knowledge is needed about waste streams and their prevention, the problems of waste management, and ways of living with waste. I produce such knowledge in the research projects WasteMatters (ERC CoG, 2022-2027) and DECAY (Research Council of Finland, 2022-2026) that I am leading, where me and my research team examine how waste shapes society and is full of both risks and possibilities.”
“I study the chemicalization of everyday life as a creeping crisis and as a question of risk governance. My research critically analyzes the direction and dynamics of national chemical management under regulatory EU reforms. My background as a chemist has guided my interest towards a field of issues shaped by the interplay of science, technology, and policy. By close examination of this interplay, it becomes clear why and how institutional practices around chemicals could and should be reconfigured.”
“My research focuses on eco-social policy and sufficiency for sustainable well-being. In my dissertation, I look at how our consumption can be reduced to sustainable levels in a fair and acceptable way. My data is based on a survey conducted in Finland and interviews with households. I am also a researcher on the MERGE and MAPS Horizon projects, which are exploring policy tools, indicators and models for sustainable well-being and a post-growth economy.”
“I study the social and political dimensions of sustainable food system transformation. My current theme is farm to school, where I investigate opportunities for leveraging the institutional buying power of US public school districts to shift funding for school meals away from conventional food supply chains towards local, values-based supply chains. I am keen to work with the theme of farm to institution procurement (i.e., hospitals, corrections facilities) more broadly, also within the Nordic context.”
“My research explores the environmental sustainability of the pharmaceutical sector and the potential for different actors of the sector to transition to greener practices under the guidance and pressure of ongoing regulatory change in the EUThe pharmaceutical sector is associated with both biodiversity impacts (pharmaceutical residues entering the environment) and climate impacts (pharmaceutical production and long distribution chains, etc.). Green transition is also needed in the pharmaceutical sector to achieve an ecologically sustainable future.”
“In my dissertation, I study wood as a building material for a sustainable society. Wood construction makes tangible how the ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ city of the future is inextricably linked to rural natural resources, knowledge, industry and labour. This dissertation challenges and diversifies notions of how to build a sustainable and more just society.”
“My dissertation research explores Finnish forests through a utopian imagination involving science, artificial intelligence, art, emotions and citizen activism. The research challenges dominant economic narratives and highlights the forest as an ecosystem. The study focuses on AI-generated texts written by the high school students participating in the study. The research is rooted in imagination and utopian studies, and in particular in the sociocultural and deep ecological traditions.”
“My thesis explores the strategies that companies can use to ensure that their operations not only minimise harm to nature and people, but also create the capacity for social and environmental systems to recover and thrive. On the other hand, I ask what obstacles or incentives stand in the way of such regenerative business. The emerging debate on regeneration sees humans as a strong part of nature.”
“I am a PhD researcher in the Sustainability transformations (Sustra) doctoral training pilot. My research explores psychologist views on sustainability transformation and activism. A key aim of my research is also to outline a framework for planetary psychology.”
“I am a Doctoral Researcher specialising in environmental, space, and intergenerational ethics. In my dissertation, I explore environmental ethical questions related to outer space. As space activities continue to expand, it is crucial to consider the impacts of our actions beyond Earth. Building a sustainable future can no longer be confined within the boundaries of our planet—we must also take into consideration our cosmic footprint.”
“In my PhD research I study how the anthropocentrism of Western education could be dismantled, and how education could instead convey a more life-centric worldview, in which people and their systems are seen as part of nature. This is crucial to a more ecologically sustainable future, as the anthropocentric Western worldview, which separates humans from nature, is considered one of the root causes of planetary polycrisis. Through my research, I aim to contribute to shifting this crisis-sustaining worldview through education.”
“I am interested in economic inequality and its implications for the planetary crisis. For my PhD I am doing research on the concentration of markets and the accumulation of power and wealth that comes with it. I am focusing on the role of the public sector in driving this development and exploring ways to build a more inclusive economy within planetary boundaries. At the moment, I am focusing on urban planning and the impact of suburban development on the ownership of local malls in Helsinki.”
“In my dissertation, which is located in the field of philosophy of education, I research the issues of post-sustainability and the sustainable relationship with technology. I continue on the problem by my dissertation supervisor Veli-Matti Värri, ‘Education in the era of eco-crisis’ (2018).”
“My dissertation examines sustainability agency in the legal system. For an ecologically sustainable future, a deeper change in the principles of the legal system is needed alongside legislation. I am interested in the experiences of people involved in the preparation and interpretation of environmental law because they help to understand the possibilities and constraints of agency and change in a complex system.”
“In my dissertation, I study goals and conflicts of political parties in urban planning in Helsinki, Tampere and Oulu. My research examines, among other things, how parties respond to the challenges of climate change, loss of biodiversity, residential segregation through urban planning. Urban planning has a key role to mitigate these phenomena, as it enables ecologically and socially sustainable urban development.”
“My research is about the water cycle, its meaning for sustaining the Earth system, and interdependencies between local and global changes in water resources. I map changes in freshwater resources using global data and combine these findings with the Finnish context by analysing physical and virtual water flows to and from Finland. I hope that my research would produce increasingly holistic knowledge on how we change the vitally important water cycle and how does it affect us.”
“In my dissertation I focus on the socio-cultural dimension of ecologically sustainable food consumption. I am interested in everyday eating habits and how they are changing towards not only reducing meat consumption, but also towards a lifestyle that fits within the limits of the planet. Using a variety of qualitative methods and a critical approach, I analyse food consumption from the perspective of grocery marketing and civil society activities.”
“I head a research project that seeks to understand how the unpredictable migration patterns of Norwegian spring-spawning herring are culturally understood and politically governed, and what can the fluctuating environmental relations in the Arctic tell us about the resilience and changing multispecies relationalities in the Anthropocene.”
