Access to the necessary welfare services
Alex Berg ([email protected])
Alex Berg, M.Sc (cand.soc) works as a Doctoral Researcher in Welfare Law (UEF Law School). His PhD dissertation tackles the legal rights and access to justice for older immigrants in Finland. The empirical research employs semi-structured interviews with older immigrants and professionals who offer services to them. The research aims to investigate the challenges that older immigrants face when they seek care and support services, the impact of stigmas on their lived experiences, and their access to justice from a broad socio-legal perspective.
Alex’s research interests focus on human rights, the rights of vulnerable people, and equality. He studied the effects of laws and social habitus on the vulnerable people’s lives and wellbeing. Some of his previous qualitative research involved refugees, stateless people, and victims of female genital mutilation.
Antti-Jussi Kouvo ([email protected])
I am a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. My teaching focuses on research methods, especially statistical ones. My research focuses on well-being, social cohesion and social networks. I have studied the topics in the contexts of welfare states, neighbourhoods and the disadvantaged groups. For example, in our research project “The neighboring networks of the older city dwellers” we looked at the role of neighborhood networks for the well-being of older people and in our current project called SISU (funded by Research Council of Finland) I lead a work package that focuses on the role of institutional trust during the green transition.
Anu Lainio ([email protected])
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the research project ‘Breadline Utopias: Alternative Futures of Material Assistance,’ funded by the Kone Foundation. We explore utopias of those working in food assistance now and in the future, as well as those who need food aid.
I earned my Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2024 from the University of Surrey in the field of sociology of education. My doctoral research was part of the ERC-funded Eurostudents project, which explored constructions of contemporary higher education students by various social actors across six European countries. In my thesis, ‘Discursive Politics of Studentship: Representation of Higher Education Students in the News Media Across Europe,’ I examined and compared constructions of students in newspapers in Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and Spain.
My research interests encompass a wide range of higher education-related themes, including student identities and discursive practices of identity formation, marketisation of higher education, educational inequalities, media studies, and cross-national and international higher education research. Currently, my research focuses on utopian theories and methods, students’ utopias of food assistance, as well as the political imagination and agency of students in a changing welfare society.
Armi Mustosmäki ([email protected])
Currently I am working as academy research fellow in my project “Smart women love money- Reconfigurations of femininity and motherhood in financialised welfare state” funded by the Finnish research council (2023-2027). This project focuses on the proliferation of financial self-help in social media that invites women to save and invest to the financial markets to fight economic gender inequality. The interest is to study how ideas and ideals on femininity, motherhood and intimate relations that are reconstructed and mediated through social media and how are these ideals received, lived, negotiated or resisted in lives of (non)investing women. The project is inspired by economic sociology, feminist media and cultural studies and critical social policy with the aim of understanding welfare state change.
Prior to joining UeF, I worked at the University of Jyväskylä in various research and teaching positions (Senior lecturer in Social and public policy, Lecturer in qualitative methods). My postdoctoral project “Complaining mothers: Affect, moral and politics of medicalisation” (2019-2023) was funded by Kone foundation and explored difficult and forbidden emotions of mothers, especially regretting motherhood as well as public response to ‘maternal complaint’ with tools provided by affect studies.
I have also participated in several projects and studied e.g. Nordic corporatism and gender equality policies, changing organisation of work in public and private sector organisations, lean management, and reconciliation of work and family. My PhD dissertation “How bright are the Nordic lights?” (2017) examined the question on the existence and persistence of the Nordic working life model by studying job quality trends in Nordic countries in a comparative perspective, drawing from institutional and labour process theories and large survey datasets. More information on publications and projects related to work life change you can find on my personal webpage.
Center of Law and Welfare
Child Welfare Services
Essi Rovamo ([email protected])
I am a project researcher in the “Promoting Evidence-based Practice in Social Work (NÄPSÄ)” project devoted to enhancing how social workers use evidence-based practices to help those in need. This project is funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health with a state grant for university-level research in social work. NÄPSÄ research project executes three work packages:
- We investigate evidence-based practice’s perceptions and knowledge base by performing scoping reviews and interviewing social work managers.
- We evaluate the learning and implementation of evidence-based practice in social work students.
- We will carry out and evaluate an education pilot for social workers.
For anyone interested in the intersection of research and practice, I invite you to explore more about NÄPSÄ on our UEFConnect page.
In addition to this project, I am writing my doctoral thesis on the Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. My research focuses on understanding the social risks of psychiatric patients. My data consists of 200 patient medical records from 2010 to 2019. By employing qualitative and quantitative methods, I aim to uncover how various social conditions contribute to mental health issues and influence the well-being of these patients.
Throughout my career, I have been involved in several developmental projects in gerontological and health social work. I have broad expertise in structural social work, learning practices, and project work. For example, I have developed gerontological social work to meet the Social Welfare Act (2014/1301) obligations for clients with complex needs. I was also part of the pioneering pilot program for the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model, a groundbreaking approach that rehabilitates people with severe mental health problems to work life. In addition, I have been a coordinator of TYÖOTE-model, a collaboration between occupational health care and public health care. My expertise centers around themes of social and healthcare integration, effectiveness, and sustainability—topics that are crucial as we strive to enhance the well-being of vulnerable people.