Leaders
Contact persons
The research project focuses on studying how Ukrainian, Middle Eastern and Finnish young people living in the Savo area perceive each other, their lives and future in multicultural Savo. The project examines how young people’s conceptions of people coming from different cultural backgrounds as well as the meanings constructed to the Savo region contribute to intergroup relations. The methodological frame of the study combines social representations theory, social identity theory and social psychological studies of place.
Arts-based workshops serve as a meeting place for young people from different cultural backgrounds and as a method of data production. The project combines arts-based methods with citizen science approach, whereby young people are co-researchers and participate in analyzing the data, building exhibitions, and presenting research findings.
The project gives young people a voice, promotes interaction between young people coming from different cultural backgrounds and supports their participation in society.
The leader of the project is Jari Martikainen, university lecturer in social psychology (University of Eastern Finland). The research team members are doctoral researchers Hadi Farahani (social work, University of Eastern Finland) and Katja Lötjönen (social psychology, University of Eastern Finland), and post doc researchers Jennifer de Paola (social psychology, University of Helsinki) and Helena Rovamo (social psychology, University of Eastern Finland). The arts-based workshops are coordinated and directed by art teacher Mari Puttonen (Siilinjärvi Community College).
The research project is funded by Kone Foundation.
News
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Savon sanomat wrote a story about the project's mural painting eventSavon sanomat wrote a story about the project's mural painting event
As part of the project, a mural painting event was organized in February 2024, where young people participating in the project had the opportunity to…
Events in the project
Below is a list of recent events in the project.
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The research project’s third arts-based workshop in August 2023
The research project’s third arts-based workshop was held at the Kuopio campus of the University of Eastern Finland on the 14th and 16th of August. The participants were young people living in the Savo area and youngsters who had moved to Savo from Ukraine and the Middle East.
The theme of the third arts-based workshop was ’future,’ or, more precisely, how the young people position themselves in the future in relation to other people and the Savo area. In the workshop, the participants used various techniques (i.e., photography, painting, and drawing) to make self-portraits of themselves in the future. Additionally, the young people drew a narrative based on their portraits. This third workshop produced written and visual material that will be analyzed in the research project.
The research project’s second arts-based workshop in June 2023
The research project’s second arts-based workshop was held at the Kuopio campus of the University of Eastern Finland on the 5th and 12th of June. The participants were young people living in the Savo area and youngsters who had moved to Savo from Ukraine and the Middle East.
The theme of the second arts-based workshop was ’encounters,’ or, more precisely, intergroup relations between people with different cultural backgrounds. In the workshop, the young people drew, painted, wrote, and discussed their images of people from different cultural background and their experiences of multicultural encounters in the Savo area. The youngsters worked both independently and in multicultural groups together with other participants. The group works were recorded on video. The second workshop produced visual, written, verbal, and video material that will be analyzed in the research project.
The research project’s first arts-based workshop in May 2023
The research project’s first arts-based workshop was held at the Kuopio campus of the University of Eastern Finland on the 23rd and 24th of May. The participants were young people living in the Savo area and youngsters who had moved to Savo from Ukraine and the Middle East.
The theme of the first arts-based workshop was ’place,’ or, more precisely, life in the multicultural Savo. In the workshop, the participants considered their images and experiences of Savo as a place of residence through arts-based methods, such as photography and collage techniques. The youngsters worked both independently and in groups with other youngsters with similar cultural backgrounds. Additionally, the participants wrote about the produced works and discussed them in group discussions facilitated by the researchers. The first workshop produced visual, written, and verbal material that will be analyzed in the research project.
Leaders
Doctoral Researchers
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Hadi Farahani
Project ResearcherDepartment of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies -
Katja Lötjönen
Project ResearcherDepartment of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies -
Helena Rovamo
Doctoral Researcher
Contact persons
Other group members
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Mari Puttonen mari.puttonen@siilinjarvi.fi
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Jennifer de Paola jennifer.depaola@helsinki.fi