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A Lost Mitten and Other Stories

The project, Lost Mitten and Other Stories, examines a new sense of neighbour relations that transpires as a result of growing mobility. The project focuses on the ways in which these new neighbour relations or a sense of neighbourliness emerge from stories related to personal items of significance, and the way in which these stories are perceived. Lost Mitten and Other Stories is an interdisciplinary project that seeks collaboration between art and science. The project is carried out in eastern Finland.

The main concern of the project is to find out how the items of personal significance and the stories related to them help establish dialogue and, consequently, new kinds of mobile and cross-border neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. Furthermore, the purpose is to explore how dialogic interaction helps promote, for example, the construction of cultural citizenship and create new, migrating, deterritorial cultural heritages. The items of personal significance as well as the stories relating to them are examined through a materialistic, cultural, linguistic, and narrative point of view and are, additionally, exhibited through artistic, interactive displays. The items of personal significance are understood as a poetic and political medium of various dialogues between past and present, between immigrants and natives, between different generations, between mobile and sedentary people.

The approach and the subject matter of the project are topical: immigration, different mobilities, the encounter of languages and cultures, and thereby, emerging new neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. The multidisciplinary approach, combining different methods of science and art, enables new ways of examining the issue of neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness.

The project combines science and art innovatively and, therefore, generates new methods to investigate the current issues of different mobilities, language and cultural encounters, and challenges arising from new neighbour relations.

The project is funded by the Kone Foundation.

Anna-Leena Toivanen ([email protected])

I am a comparative literature scholar interested in adopting a mobility studies approach to literary studies. I currently work as Academy Research Fellow and my project, “The Poetics of Afroeuropean Mobilities in Francophone African Literatures” (project number 330906), examines how Francophone African literatures from the mid-20th century to the present represent forms of human physical travel (pedestrianism, automobility, aeromobility, maritime travel, travel in public transport etc.) in the wider context of different Afroeuropean mobilities: student mobilities, tourism and exploration, professional mobilities, criminal mobilities, return travel, and clandestine travel. The project develops analytical tools for reading mobilities in literature. My book “Mobilities and Cosmopolitanisms in African and Afrodiasporic Literatures” was published in March 2021 (Brill): https://brill.com/view/title/57650

 

Brexit, migration and mobility

Brexit provides an excellent opportunity to examine how the formal (state) and informal (social) processes of border-making relate to each other and play out in the everyday life of those impacted by this historic change. As the transitionary period after UK’s exit from the EU ends in December 2020, it is important to discuss the impact of the Brexit process from a migrant perspective. The prolonged uncertainty has already had an impact on the lives of intra-European migrants at multiple levels: for their legal status and rights as residents, for their work opportunities and career prospects and for identity and the sense of belonging and feeling of social inclusion to their host societies – be they the UK for the Nordic migrants or any of the other EU countries for the Brits.

UEF is host to several research projects that focus on the impact of Brexit on intra-European migrants. Dr. Tiina Sotkasiira has interviewed Finns living in Scotland and England as a part of her research on Brexit and Finns in Britain and Dr. Saara Koikkalainen has collected data among Nordic nationals in London . Together with two colleagues, researcher Peter Holley and Dr. Nicol Savinetti, Dr. Koikkalainen has also conducted a survey among Brits living in Europe (n=752).

Elina Hytönen-Ng ([email protected])

Hytönen-Ng is an ethnomusicologist and a cultural researcher, who specializes in the ethnographic study of people’s musical experiences. Her research topic include popular music research (especially jazz), peak experiences related to music, work environment of musicians, musicians’ mobility, sonic environment of reception center, soundscape studies, schools soundscape, the role of sound in shamanic rituals and the meaning of sound in the creation of relationship with the environment.
In her latest research she studies the lamenting tradition and how it lives in the contemporary world, as well as what kind of meanings are give to it and how it is experiences in the body.

The funding for the research comes from KKES, foundation for the promoting Karelian culture, and Kone Foundation.

Hanna Lehtimäki ([email protected])

Hanna Lehtimäki (Ph.D. Bus Econ) is a professor of Innovation Management in Business School and a Director of Research Center for Sustainable Circular Economy (CECE) founded in 2023 at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research examines circular economy with theoretical frameworks on innovation management, strategic management, organization theory, leadership, and entrepreneurship.  She and her research team, SunLab, advance transdisciplinary social sciences research and societal impact in sustainable circular economy transition. In her capacity as a Vice Director of UEF strategic research community Sustainable Resource Society: Circular Economy, Energy and Raw Materials (RESOURCE RC), she advances multidisciplinary social sciences research agenda for sustainability transition in business and society.
She is an experienced research project leader. Currently she leads a work package in a research consortium Partnership model – plastic circularity funded by Business Finland, a development project Circular economy microcredentials (CE4ALL) funded by EU Just Transition Fund, Northern Savo and Northern Karjala Regional Funds, a research project Leading Regenerative Circular Economy (LEADSUS) funded by the Finnish Foundation for Economic Education and is a work package leader in Research Council of Finland funded research project Multi-level governance of critical materials for future electric mobility (GOVERMAT). She was a vicePI and a work package leader in an Academy of Finland Strategic Research Council project Circular Economy Catalysts: From Innovation to Business Ecosystems (2019-2023) and a leader in Finnish Indian research consortium Circular Economy Solutions for Microplastics: Indo-Finnish Scientific Collaboration for Innovation (CESMI) (2022-2024).
She is also active in advancing sustainability education in her capacity as a leader of Sustainability leadership international Master’s programme at the UEF Business School and a multidisciplinary minor Sustainable Business and Society.
Her research has appeared in journals internationally and she has recently co-edited books on art and sustainability and catalyzing sustainable circular economy. The recent edited books are:
Ghosh, Pooja, Carrasco-Navarro, Victor, Lehtimäki, Hanna (Eds.) (2025, forthcoming). Circular Plastics Economy: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Elsevier.
 
Lehtimäki, Hanna, Taylor, Steve, Galvão-Lyra, Mariana (Eds.) (2024). Art and Sustainability Transitions in Business and Society. Theoretical Insights and Engagement. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-031-44218-6. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-44219-3
Lehtimäki, Hanna, Aarikka-Stenroos, Leena, Jokinen, Ari, & Jokinen, Pekka (Eds.) (2023). The Routledge Handbook of Catalysts for a Sustainable Circular Economy. Routledge. ISBN 9781032212449.

Jussi Laine ([email protected])

Dr Jussi P. Laine is a professor of multidisciplinary border studies at the Karelian Institute of the University of Eastern Finland, holding the title of Docent of Human Geography at the University of Oulu, Finland. From 2013 to 2021 he led the Association for Borderlands Studies, the leading international scholarly association dedicated exclusively to the systematic interchange of ideas and information relating to international border areas.  By background, Dr. Laine is a human geographer, yet in his approach to borders, he combines influences from international relations and geopolitics, political sociology, history, anthropology, and psychology. His research explores the multiscalar production of borders and critically examines the relationship between state, territory, citizenship, and identity construction. His work extends to borderland resilience and comprehensive security, addressing the vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities of border regions in the face of geopolitical shifts, migration dynamics, and hybrid security threats. Most recently, Dr. Laine has published works on border mobility, migration, the ethics of borders, and ontological (in)security.

Laura Mankki ([email protected])

In my research, I am particularly interested in the intersection of intersectionality, labour and capitalism.

I am currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in a research project funded by the Kone Foundation on Formations of hybrid manhood in the experience economy (EXMEN 2022-2025) in which I study the “new work” of male influencers and in particular the relationship between dogs and men.

In 2013-2017, I worked at the University of Jyväskylä as a PhD student in the project Industrial Citizenship and Labour Mobility in the EU funded by the Academy of Finland, and then at the University of Eastern Finland as a university teacher in the Department of Social Sciences (2017-2019), and as a junior researcher in the project Lean production model in public services: new formations of work and gender (LEWOGE 2018-2022) funded by the Academy of Finland. In the LEWOGE project, led by Professor Eeva Jokinen, we studied the effects of the Lean management model in public health care organisations.

In my PhD research (2024), I investigated the struggles of migrants working in low-wage sectors as part of the (re)production of the Finnish welfare state https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/95524.

In summer 2025, I will start my research project funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation: Precarious intimate networks of migration and work – Intimate and intersectional infrastructures of low-wage migrants (PRECAINFRA).

Lauri Stenroth ([email protected])

I currently work as an Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Technical Physics. I am a sport scientist by education with a specialization in biomechanics. My research is related to the structure, function, and adaptation of the human musculoskeletal system. The application areas of my research are in musculoskeletal diseases and human performance throughout the lifespan. I use various experimental techniques, including motion capture, electromyography, medical imaging, and tissue-level mechanical testing, in combination with computational modelling and simulation, to address the research questions. My current research focus areas are knee osteoarthritis, mobility in old age, and tendon disorders.

I am part of the Biophysics research group and actively work with the Biosignal Analysis and Medical Imaging research group, utilizing HUMEA Laboratory in my research. I hold the title of docent from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, where I actively collaborate with the Sports and Exercise Medicine discipline.

Maarit Sireni ([email protected])

Main research interests: 1. Gender and Space: feminist rural studies, farm women, entrepreneurship, motherhood and childcare in the countryside; 2. Imagined and Lived Rural Space: changing rural communities, sense of place, everyday life and mobility patterns in rural areas, everyday security in rural areas; 3. Cultural Geographies of Home: domestic material cultures of Karelian people; 4. Land Use Planning in the Countryside: sparsity, living in low density areas; 5. Geographies of Food: local food and second home owners; 6. Rural Services: integration of services.

Courses: Rural Geography, 5116228, 5 cr (lectures in Finnish).