I work as a Human Resources Specialist at the UEF Human Resources Services. My responsibilities and duties include:
I am a legal philosopher of Polish descent, residing in Eastern Finland (North Karelia, Joensuu). I did my PhD in Poland in 2009 (on law and morality: abortion, euthanasia, human fertilisation, cloning, pornography, prostitution, same-sex couples, etc.). I did different postgraduate studies in: 1) human resources management, 2) economics, 3) MBA-sustainable and inclusive leadership, 4) Jews in Poland. I carried out my postdoctoral research at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF, School of Law), in 2013-2015 (on the recent global financial crisis as an axiological crisis: the crisis of law and the crisis of morality; business ethics/corporate governance). My Docent title was granted by the University of Lapland in 2022 (in the field of philosophy of law in the Arctic).
I have been a Visiting Researcher at the UEF School of Theology since 2020. Additionally, I am a University Professor at the State University of Applied Sciences in Wloclawek (Department of Administration) in Poland. I am a Lecturer at the University of Guyana (Department of Law) in Guyana. I am a former Visiting Professor at Carleton University (Department of Law and Legal Studies) in Ottawa, Canada.
I am a law and religion scholar. I work on state church relations, religious freedom, Catholicism and Judaism, but also on relations between law, morality and religion. My main research interests concern as well: law and morality, law and politics, law and society, law and anthropology, law and language, etc. Much of my research has covered indigenous cultures in the Arctic like customary laws, recognition of indigenous rights or protection of sacred sites. I am also to ethical foundations of economy.
Moreover, I do “all things Polish”.
While in the School, I teach:
I also taught here (2022/2023):
Moreover, while in social sciences (2023/2024), I am the coordinator of the YUFE course “Global Migration and European Identity” and have taught “Populism in East Central Europe”.
I am a human geographer with research interests in economic development and cultural geography. In particular, I focus on economic development and education in the Global South, as well as the idea of “culturalization of natural resources” for the purposes of local development. At present I lead the project “Business and Sustainable Economic Development: African and European Perspectives” (BUSEDA) with partners in six African countries.
I am working on a research project to develop a biochar-based water protection tool for forestry. In this project, I am studying and testing a biochar reactor for water purification and retaining nutrients from forest runoff waters. Measuring the adsorption characteristics related to different biochars for compounds present in natural waters, studying how the adsorption characteristics are related to biochar properties, and mathematical modelling of biochar reactor operation are the main aspects of the current project. My overall aim is to get a comprehensive understanding of recovering nutrients from a relatively low initial concentration, high water volume, and in the presence of high dissolved organic matter concentration using a biochar reactor.
My background is in agriculture and natural resources engineering. My research of interest lies in various issues, including carbon neutrality, water treatments, nutrient recycling, climate change, and modelling the hydrological extremes using interdisciplinary methods to understand hydrological processes and their interaction with human activities.
I hold LL.M degrees from the University of Helsinki and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). My PhD is also from the LSE, focusing on the challenges of the environment and legitimacy at the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement System.
I am also affiliated with the 3E Center at the Brussels School of Governance, the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, with the Erik Castren Institute for International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki, as well as with the Earth Negotiations Bulletin / International Institute for Sustainable Development.
My main research interests are international, EU, national and comparative climate change law, as well as international economic law and international legal theory. I also very much enjoy multidisciplinary climate change research both with other social scientists and natural scientists. I work closely with the UEF Research Group on Atmospheric Physics and with other climate scientists within the Atmospheric and Climate Competence Center Flagship.
Beyond academia, I have worked as legal adviser and consultant, inter alia, for the Finnish Government, the World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, European Commission, Nordic Council of Ministers, IUCN, International Institute for Sustainable Development, International Trade Center, World Resources Institute and Nordic Environment Finance Corporation.
Dr. Mikko Vastaranta is currently a professor in digitalization and knowledge leadership in forest-based bioeconomy in the School of Forest Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. He received his M. Sc (2007) and PhD (2012) in forest resource science and technology from the University of Helsinki where he also holds an adjunct professorship of remote sensing of forests. He has worked as a research scientist in the centre of excellence in laser scanning research, university lecturer in forest planning (University of Helsinki), visiting research scientists in Pacific Forestry Centre (Canadian Forestry Service, Natural Resources Canada) and a visiting professor at Shinshu University (Japan). In his research, he is exploring nature-human-machine interactions using geoinformation science-based technologies and methods. Vastaranta has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles and his recent publications can be found on Google Scholar.
I work in the centralized human resources team as a human resources specialist. My tasks include Certia development cooperation, personnel services quality matters, tasks related to the evaluation of professors, consulting tasks related to hourly teaching and remuneration.
I am a human-geographer specialized on relational aspect of environmental and sustainability governance. My core expertise is to study socio-spatial processes of bio-based resource policy, management and local materialization to evaluate development frameworks, barriers and alternatives. I am experienced in research on policy mobility and translations in an EU context, case studies on regional and local development and policy materialization as well as sustainability perspectives in economic contexts.
I am currently also acting as the coordinator of the SOBIO network at UEF on social scientific bioeconomy focused research .
Current research project: “Sustainability governance of BioAssemblages: A trifold perspective on bioeconomy clusters in the making” (2017-2019)
Other project: Karelia CBC; WasteLess Karelias (Project coordinator) (2018-2021)
Previous research:
-EU bioenergy policy design and transformation between Brussels and local implementation
-Perspectives on sustainable forest certification in European supply chains
-Cross-border management of natural resources.
My research focuses on how humans, animals, nature and environment(s) co-produce (un)shared realities and how this production is controlled or steered in societies and communities through institutional, material and socio-cultural arrangements. I am interested in the multidimensional and multilevel nature of politics and policies. I have analysed e.g. on wolf policies, development of modern animal policy and law and sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystem services. I have a strong interest towards interdisciplinary work; my research reaches out from social sciences towards humanities and law. I teach about empirical legal research and animal law and policy. I coordinate sustainability studies at the University of Eastern Finland and also a national level network for sustainability studies.
I am an environmental social scientist specialising on environmental policy. My research topics have ranged from energy, forest biodiversity, wolves and other wildlife to food and waste issues. My research interest encompasses human-nature relations and the politics of environmental knowledge, including epistemic power relations and knowledge controversies. I am also exploring citizen engagement and agency in sustainability transformations. In addition to environmental policy studies I am inspired by science and technology studies, especially posthumanist and pragmatist approaches calling for attention to non-human natures as well as corporeality and materialities in social scientific inquiry. Thereby, I am interested in the role of affects and emotions in environmental governance, human-wildlife cohabitation and care of things. In my work, I have also had a chance to experiment with science-art collaborations.
Projects:
PlastLIFE SIP (2023-2029)
Sense of Water (2022-2026)
Publications:
Peltola T, Saarela S-R, Kotilainen J, Litmanen T, Lukkarinen J, Pölönen I, Ratamäki O, Saarikoski H, Salo M & Vikström S (2023) Researcher roles in collaborative governance interventions. Science and Public Policy, doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scad034
Peltola T & Ratamäki O (2023) Sharing epistemic power: digitally mediated wolf monitoring in Finland. Science as Culture, doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2023.2214148
Peltola T, Arpin I, Leino J, Peltonen L, Salmi P & Ratamäki O (2023) Management plans as resources in conservation conflicts. Environmental Policy and Governance 33(2), 206-218. doi.org/10.1002/eet.2014
I also work at the Finnish Environment Institute, Societal Change Unit
