Päivi Kymäläinen

I have been Professor in Social Policy at Tampere University since 2023. Before that, I worked as an Associate Professor in Social Research. My position is linked with Tampere University's profilation area STUE (Sustainable Transformation of Urban Environments) and to the question of socially sustainable cities. I have previously worked at the Universities of Turku and Oulu, and at Helsinki University of Technology. I have also served as a visiting professor/scholar in Nordic (NTNU, Roskilde University, Uppsala University) and North American universities (Simon Fraser University, University of Pennsylvania), and have been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Syracuse University (USA). 

I am a docent at the University of Turku (urban geography) and at Åbo Akademi University (legal geography).

I lead the Research Network for Justice, Space and Society (JUSTSPACES) and have recently served as a PI in four research projects: Spaces of Confinement in the Institutions of Care and Control in Finland (Academy of Finland 2017–2022), The RIght to Suburban Space (The Finnish Ministry of the Environment, Neighborhood Program 2020–2023), Space, Justice and Everyday Democracy (Kone Foundation 2022–2026) and Forest Rights (Kone Foundation 2024–2027).

I enjoy supervising dissertations and Master's theses related to my expertise, so feel free to contact in case you are intersted in the topics of our research team. We are also interested in new collaboration with researchers, cities, journalists, artists, communities and activists. 

My main research interests include: 

- the right to (sub)urban space;

- socially sustainable and just cities; 

- urban inequality;

- everyday democracy and participation; 

- urban public spaces;

- urban margins and alternative communities; 

- everyone's rights;

- space/law relations; 

- the conceptualizations of social spaces, places and landscapes.