The ageing and elder care research group is a multidisciplinary research group (incl. social gerontology, gerontological social work, health and social management, organization sciences), which addresses various elder care management and organizational issues and the wellbeing of older people from multi-agency perspectives. The effectiveness of services is also studied with different methodical approaches.
Elisa Tiilikainen (elisa.tiilikainen@uef.fi)
I am a social scientist interested in issues related to ageing and later life. Currently I work as an Associate Professor in Social Work at the Department of Social Sciences. My work includes work with research projects and teaching around questions related to social gerontology and gerontological social work. At the moment I am leading a four-year research project on old-age social inclusion in home care (SOLDEX) funded by the Research Counsil of Finland, and a workpackage on digital health technologies and services of older adults (75+) as part of a Nordic collaboration project (HAIDI). In addition, I am involved in several multidisciplinary programs and networks.
In my PhD I examined loneliness from a life course perspective identifying different pathways behind loneliness in later life and exploring how loneliness changes in time. I have also examined experiences of loneliness from the perspective of people living with aphasia and older migrant women. My studies have highlighted the multidimensional and dynamic nature of loneliness and its individual meanings in relation to different life events and transitions. In my studies I have used mostly qualitative methodologies, but I’m interested in finding ways to combine different methods, especially from longitudinal perspectives.
Hanna Varjakoski (hanna.varjakoski@uef.fi)
I currently work as a postdoctoral researcher in the HAIDI project at the University of Eastern Finland. My background is in the Humanities, and I received my PhD in Media Studies in the University of Turku, Finland. In my dissertation, I examined the Finnish media landscape of the 2000s and what it produces and challenges as regards cultural imageries and understandings of ageing, older individuals and later life. The study focused on analyzing age representations on social media, popular fiction film and selected TV-makeover shows with a gender sensitive approach.
My research interests are in the field of cultural gerontology, in particular, but I have also worked as a researcher e.g. in a project that examined older adults’ neighbour relations and age diversity in the neighborhood.
I teach in courses that address questions related to cultural ageing, media, digitalization and health.
Sinikka Vakimo (sinikka.vakimo@uef.fi)
Vakimo’s main interests in research include gender sensitive cultural gerontology, life course and life history as well as social interaction in the web, media representations, folk narratives and humor and research ethics. She has also specialized in qualitative research methods, ethnography, and oral history methodology.