Weall researcher Professor Marjut Jyrkinen and Weall scientific advisory board member Professor Linda McKie on (Re)searching for equality in working life at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships.
http://www.crfr.ac.uk/crfr-seminar-researching-for-equality-in-working-life-the-weall-project/
“High-standard research and community engagement are equally important in our project. We are doing community engagement in a new way, in close cooperation with our partners and stakeholders,” says Associate Professor Marjut Jyrkinen, who heads the WeAll project.
The WeAll project studies the professional opportunities of diverse groups of people. The world of work is studied from an intersectional perspective, considering age, gender, social status, ethnicity, sexual orientation and geographical location.
WeAll received funding from the Academy of Finland’s Strategic Research Council (SRC) during the first application round in 2015, and so far, it is the only such project to be coordinated by the University of Helsinki. Next year, three new SRC-funded projects will be launched at the University.
“We listen carefully to our partners, and remain open to their ideas,” says DPhil Mira Karjalainen, who is the research coordinator for the project.
“High-standard research and community engagement are equally important in our project.”
As a part of WeAllFinland Consortium, a research group in the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics carried out a study on male managers’ attitudes to the integration of work and family life. Managers are an important group in this respect because they serve as role models in the workplace and influence the kind of values and practices that shape the work-family relationship. The men in our study both relied on the traditional idea of the relationship between fatherhood and work, and constructed new possibilities.
The 2017 EBEN Annual Conference will take place June 14-16, at the University of Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics, JSBE (Finland), and it will be preceded by a one-day workshop for doctoral students on June 13.
The theme of the conference is “Searching for Sustainability in Future Working Life“.
The conference is organized in cooperation between the WeAll Research Consortium ‘Social and Economic Sustainability of Future Working Life: Policies, Equalities and Intersectionalities in Finland’ (funded by the programme Equality in Society, Strategic Funding of the Academy of Finland, n:o 292883), the University of Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics, the University of Tampere School of Management, and the Finnish Chapter of the European Business Ethics Network EBEN.
Professor Ann Phoenix from the University of Helsinki will be delivering the closing words at the WeAll “Pressure as a Catalyst for Change?” seminar this Thursday at Hanken. The seminar will be held at the Hanken Festsalen from 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm and is open to the public. Leading up the seminar, we wanted to ask Professor Phoenix about her current research focus.
What is your current research focus in and how does it relate to the themes of the WeAll project?
My current research is on family lives, environment, transnational migration and masculinities in Finnish boys. All of these themes fit with the themes of WeAll in that all are concerned with equality and diversity as well as wellbeing. The Project on Family Lives and Environment that I am currently writing up is about getting more complex understandings of what environment means to members of families, with a view to developing really sustainable practices. It considered rural-urban commonalities and differences for affluent and economically poor families in India and the UK. The small-scale study of boys and masculinities aims to understand boys’ masculinities in a changing Finland where ethnic diversity is more foregrounded than previously.
In your opinion, why are the themes researched in the WeAll Project especially crucial in the context of the Finnish society today?
Issues of intersectional equalities and social justice are increasingly central to global agenda, where, in a post-Brexit world with Donald Trump as president elect of the US, parochialism, racism and sexism are being taken-for-granted By some as ordinary and acceptable. The serious attention paid By the WeAll Project to multiple, multilayered inequalities and their intersections is both admirable and crucial for ensuring that Finnish society addresses its increasing plurality in ways that enable all its citizens to thrive.
To see the full seminar program please visit here. We look forward to an engaging afternoon!
Professor Ann Phoenix
Njoki Githieya, representing Monika – Multicultural Women’s Association, will be speaking at the WeAll “Pressure as a Catalyst for Change?” seminar this Thursday at Hanken. The seminar will be held at the
Hanken Festsalen from 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm and is open to the public. Leading up the seminar, we wanted to ask Njoki Githieya about her current research focus.
What is your current research focus in and how does it relate to the themes of the WeAll project?
My current research is focused on “the perception of vulnerable and minority groups” specifically the refugee crisis and how positive or negative perception influences and affects the spaces in which they exist and interact.
I am interested in creating spaces in which marginalized groups receive equal opportunity to compete and exist in a diverse society with access to equality and non-discrimination, my aim is to speak up for the “other” dispel stereotypes and propose a new approach for interaction. Building trusting relationships therefore increasing the success of integration and diversity in my community. Exposing and challenging the cultural, economic and political underbelly will advance further the themes of the WeAll project.
In your opinion, why are the themes researched in the WeAll project especially crucial in the context of the Finnish society today?
It is critical that these discussions are encouraged and protected in an increasingly polarized world. Debate creates dialogue and an opportunity to change an opinion or influence policy. Which is simply another step closer to equality and diversity. There is a staggeringly low absorption rate of minority groups into professional emloyment sectors in Finland, is this not impetus for us to identify why and propose solutions that encourage positive change?
We look forward to Njoki Githieya’s presentation “The Injustice of Stereotypes”. To see the full seminar program please visit here. We look forward to an engaging afternoon!
