Anu Lainio
Grant-funded Researcher
PhD
anu.lainio@uef.fi
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.
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Lainio, A. (2023) Independent learner as the ideal – normative representations of higher education students in film and television drama across Europe, Critical Studies in Education, DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2023.2210627
Salonen, A-S., Laiho, M., Lainio, A. and Myllys, R. (2023) Moninaiset tulevaisuudet: Nuorten utopioiden ulottuvuudet. In S. Mikkola and S-M. Saarelainen (eds), Milleniaalien kirkko: Kulttuuriset muutokset ja kristillinen usko. Pp. 286–313, Kirkon tutkimuskeskus. https://julkaisut.evl.fi/catalog/Tutkimukset%20ja%20julkaisut/r/4322/viewmode=infoview
Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S. & Lainio, A. (2023) Constructing ‘ideal’ students within contemporary higher education: editorial introduction, International Studies in Sociology of Education, 32:1, 1-10, DOI: 10.1080/09620214.2023.2171901
Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S., Lainio, A. & Lazetic, P. (2022) Constructing the Higher Education Student: Perspectives from Across Europe. Policy Press.
Lainio, A. & Brooks R. (2021) Constructing students as family members: contestations in media and policy representations across Europe, in R. Brooks & S. O’Shea (eds), Re-imagining the Higher Education Student. Constructing and Contesting Identities. Routledge.
Jayadeva, S., Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Abrahams, J., Lažetič, P., & Lainio, A. (2021). Are Spanish Students Customers? Paradoxical Perceptions of the Impact of Marketisation on Higher Education in Spain. Sociological Research Online, 26(1), 185-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780420968577
Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S., & Lainio, A. (2021). Students in Marketised Higher Education Landscapes: An Introduction. Sociological Research Online, 26(1), 125-129. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780420971651
Brooks, R., Lainio, A. & Lažetić, P. (2020) Using creative methods to research across difference. An introduction to the special issue, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23(1), 1-6. DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2019.1672281