Here, you can read more about the thematic research areas, research themes and projects of the Karelian Institute.
Regional and rural studies
The research priorities of this thematic area are
- Peripheral regions of Europe
- Sustainable development in rural areas
- Employment, labour market, well-being and gender equality.
The Karelian Institute has a long history in basic and applied multidisciplinary research in the regional and rural development of Eastern Finland. For more than 20 years now, the Institute has also been engaged in research focusing on working life and regional labour markets. In these fields of research, cooperation is close with undergraduate and postgraduate education and active connections are maintained with various regional development operators. The unit in charge of commissioned research is the Centre for Regional Research, Spatia.
The responsible person in this thematic area is Petri Kahila, Research Director at Spatia.
- ÄLY - What is Smart Shrinking in Finland?
- Ensuring a Good Life in the Rural -network
- EUARENAS - Cities as Arenas of Political Innovation in the Strengthening of Deliberative and Participatory Democracy
- Maaseutupolitiikan neuvoston arviointi
- PIP - Prospects in the Peripheries
- COSPIN - Effects of subsidized collaboration on spatial innovation capacity
- ECoC-SME - Actions for inducing SME growth and innovation via the ECoC event and legacy
- Sustainable Rural - Hyvinvoinnin ja elinvoiman yhteisöllinen uudelleenmäärittely vähenevän ja ikääntyvän väestön maaseutualueilla – kohti sosiaalisesti kestävää maaseutua
- The ESPON IRiE ”Interregional Relations in Europe"
- PISARA - Pienten kuntien strategiset ja luovat ratkaisut
- ESCAPE - The Future of Europe's shrinking Rural Regions: Trends, Perspectives & New Agendas for Territorial Governance
- Quality of life measurements and methology (QoL)
- Osaamisen merkitys muutoksessa, kun työ siirtyy kunnasta yhtiöön
- MaaseutuInno - Maaseudun sosiaalisten innovaatioiden kokonaiskuva
- UUDET - Uudistuvat elinvoimataajamat
- KAHVEE2 - The Citizen Participation and Rural Welfare -Network for Rural Policy
- MATILDE - Migration Impact Assessment to Enhance Integration and Local Development In European Rural And Mountain Areas
- RELOCAL - Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development
- Uudet ja kehittyvät yritystoiminnan muodot Pohjois-Karjalan maaseudulla, Puhti-hanke
- Saaristo-ohjelman laadinta
- Maaseutuluotaimen toteutus Uudenmaan alueella
- Länsi-Suomen alueellisten maaseudun kehittämissuunnitelmien 2014-2020 väliarvioinnin jatkohankinta (osa 2): Leader-yritystukien tarkastelu ja rakennetukien arviointi Etelä-Pohjanmaan, Pirkanmaan, Pohjanmaan, Satakunnan ja Varsinais-Suomen alueella
- Suomen CAP strategiasuunnitelman ennakkoarviointi
- Kylätutkimus Sivakassa ja Rasimäessä
- Rajoja ylittävä vapaa-ajan asuminen
- Sopeutuvat innovatiiviset maaseudut – SOMA
- Pitkäaikaistyöttömien potentiaali työvoimavarantona
- Tutkimus sote- ja maakuntauudistuksen vaikutuksista sote-alojen henkilöstöön sukupuolten tasa-arvon kannalta
- Maaseudun INFRA-verkoston selvitys valokuituinvestointien kehittämisestä
- Maaseutu sote-uudistuksessa - Julkisen palvelulupauksen toteutuminen maakunnallisissa rakenteissa - MaaseutuSote
- Maaseutuluotain Varsinais-Suomessa
- Maaseutuluotain Pohjois-Karjala
- Beyond Core-Periphery Debates: Central Europe in the Construction of European Union - RECENTRE (2017-2018)
- Changing Hungarian Spatial Imaginaries: Nationality, Territoriality, Development and the Politics of Borders
- Ennakoiva työmarkkina- ja toimialatieto kasvualojen osaamistarpeiksi - ETKO
- Ennaltaehkäisevä toiminta ja kumppanuus harvaan asutulla maaseudulla - MaaseutuHyte
- Maaseutupolitiikan elämänlaatuverkosto - ELVI (2016-2017)
- Paikallisen ruuan tulevaisuuskuvat ja yhteiskunnalliset vaikutukset, PARTY
- RuralLWS-hanke, Tutkimushanke maaseudun paikallisista hyvinvointijärjestelmistä
- Second Homes as a for the Local Economic Development (LED) (Vapaa-ajan asuminen kuntien mahdollisuutena)
- Sivakka–Rasimäki-tutkimuksen viides vaihe
- TYVA - tuloksekas työllistäminen
- Työtä ja koulutusta maaseudulle - Tuottavatko digitalisaatio ja sähköiset palvelut uusia ratkaisuja maaseudun opiskelu- ja työmahdollisuuksiin?
- Vapaa-ajan asuminen kuntien mahdollisuutena
- Yritysten henkilöstövähennysten vaikutukset työpaikkansa menettäneiden ja yritykseen jääneiden työntekijöiden työuriin
Ethnicity and culture
The research priorities of this thematic area are
- History and present in Karelia, Eastern Finland and Northwest Russia
- Cultures of border regions, social and cultural activities
- Relations between ethnic groups, mobility, identity and gender.
The research projects carried out under this thematic area are interdisciplinary, combining cultural studies, historical research, and social sciences. This thematic area’s strengths lie in offering national and international multidisciplinary research expertise related to its focus areas and research priorities, as well as producing information that is applicable in the comparative examination of border regions and cultural boundaries, migration, history, identities, and cultural processes..
The responsible person in this thematic area is Professor Pekka Suutari.
- Borderscapes within Folklore
- Transnational Death: Practices of Death and Remembrance in the Transnational Everyday on the Finnish-Russian Border
- Lacrimal Ducts
- Urban Karelianity
- PISH - Problem-Based Learning, Intercultural Communications and STEM in Higher Education
- A Return to Interspecific Coexistence - Posthuman Interpretations from Folklore, Oral History, and Popular Culture
- A Lost Mitten and Other Stories
- Russia as a field and an archive - Constructing Finnishness among ethnographers of the 19th and 20th century Finland
- Traumatized Borders: Reviving subversive narratives of b/order, and Other
- Karjalankieliset rajalla
- Merikarjala
- Kantele Goes Global! Ground Zero (Kantele-GO!)
- Post-imperial diversities – majority-minority relations in the transition from empires to nation-states
- Does Concern for Ethnic Russians in the Near Abroad affect Russian Policy‐Making? (ERNA)
- (Im)mortals - transnational death
- Taitie
- Regional and Local History Working Group
- The Transformation of Soviet Republic Borders to International Borders
- GLASE, Globaalin turvallisuuden monikerroksiset rajat
- Joustavat etnisyydet
Borders and Russia
The research priorities of the Borders and Russia thematic area are
- Karelia and the changes in the social and governmental structures in Russia
- External borders of the EU, integration and neighbourhood
- Life, migration and interaction in border regions.
This thematic area focuses on Northwest Russia and Northern Europe; Finland and the eastern border of the European Union and the border regions. Our approach to research is multidisciplinary and comparative, and our researchers actively participate in international research debate on the formation of nations and regions, the changing significance of borders, and development of border regions, particularly as part of European integration, globalisation and the period of social and political transition following the Cold War.
VERA network for Russian and Border Studies coordinates research and promotes education programmes on Russian and Border Studies at the University of Eastern Finland.
The responsible person in this thematic area is Professor Ilkka Liikanen.
- Borderscapes within Folklore
- Transnational Death: Practices of Death and Remembrance in the Transnational Everyday on the Finnish-Russian Border
- EUARENAS - Cities as Arenas of Political Innovation in the Strengthening of Deliberative and Participatory Democracy
- InBorder - Planning for Integration: Landscapes of Power in Borderland Governance
- PIP - Prospects in the Peripheries
- Urban Karelianity
- Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development (RELOCAL)
- A Lost Mitten and Other Stories
- Russia as a field and an archive - Constructing Finnishness among ethnographers of the 19th and 20th century Finland
- Traumatized Borders: Reviving subversive narratives of b/order, and Other
- Karjalankieliset rajalla
- Merikarjala
- Kantele Goes Global! Ground Zero (Kantele-GO!)
- Post-imperial diversities – majority-minority relations in the transition from empires to nation-states
- Does Concern for Ethnic Russians in the Near Abroad affect Russian Policy‐Making? (ERNA)
- Grand Duchy of Finland as Political Space: A Conceptual History
- EURASIAN INSIGHTS: Strenghtening Central Eurasian Studies in Europe (EISCAS)
- Cross-border Investment Navigator for Monocities (CINNAMON)
- (Im)mortals - transnational death
- Brexit, migration and mobility
- Regional and Local History Working Group
- Trans-Border Second-Home Mobility
- The Transformation of Soviet Republic Borders to International Borders
- GLASE - Multilayered Borders of Global Security
- Joustavat etnisyydet
- Northern Dimensions of European Union Actorness
- The EU-Africa relations, migration, development and integration - AEMDI
- Bordering, Political Landscapes and Social Arenas: Potentials and Challenges of Evolving Border Concepts in a post-Cold War World - EUBORDERSCAPES
- Association of Borderlands Studies Executive Secretariat and Treasurer - ABS Exec
- Career Mobility of Russian Healthcare Professionals in Finland: Trends, Patterns and Effects
- Changing Hungarian Spatial Imaginaries: Nationality, Territoriality, Development and the Politics of Borders
- Coming to Terms with the Stalinist Past: What Citizens Think in Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine
- Foodscapes of Central Asian Migrants in Russia (2015-2018)
- Local Impacts of Changing International Borders - Local impacts
- Suomen venäjänkieliset median käyttäjinä
- Venäjä-kuvat Euraasiassa: muisti, identiteetti ja konflikti