Research projects within TCLS network

Digital Society – Exploring critical junctures and breakages

The Digital Society project addresses the various facets of digitalised society and economy, new forms of digitalised work and its organising in society. 

The project is internationally networked with comparative data gathering, international collaboration and publishing. The project provides analytical interdisciplinary answers with a strong future orientation to the questions of how digitalisation is changing societies through all the new arrangements. 

Digital Society website 

SWiPE research project studies work, entrepreneurship and education in the new platform economy and produces knowledge to support societal decision making. 

Visit SWiPE website to learn more. 

GEM-Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 

• Contact Anne Kovalainen 
• GEM-Global Entrepreneurship Monitor website 

Gendered Economy Embedded in Equality

• Contact Anne Kovalainen

The Knowledge Governance project analyses new forms of academic knowledge production from various perspectives, with special focus on the modes of collaboration of academy/university with its external partners. Another emphasis is on developing innovative and multidisciplinary research initiatives at University of Turku, and in this, the central ambition will be in promoting science and technology studies by both internal alliances and collaboration between different faculties and units, and external, international alliances and co-operation.

Visit Knowledge Governance website to learn more. 

University of Turku has an ongoing research project focusing on "Academic Entrepreneurship as a social process" (ACE) together with the University of Eastern Finland. The four-year project (2016-2020) is funded by the Academy of Finland and studies academic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education and training in the transformation of universities marked by financial pressure and the growing importance of societal impact.

• contact Ulla Hytti

DISCE project is set to improve and enhance the growth, inclusivity and sustainability of the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in the EU. Overall, the ambitious and wider policy goals of DISCE are:

• to support the development patterns of CCIs within the EU through research on new business models and inclusive growth; and
• to re-shape understanding of what ‘inclusive and sustainable growth’ consists of in this context, shifting the CCIs (and CCIs policy) towards strategic goals of ‘cultural development’ that encompass both GDP and human flourishing.

From the policy perspective DISCE aims to unlock the potential of the CCIs in Europe at regional, national and European level.

ViBu - Virtual Teams in International Business 

VIBu is a global online business simulation that joins international learners in a synchronous, shared business operations environment. VIBu forms an international learning experience, which engages its participants in a meaningful manner. This is something we witness time after time in our training session.

• contact Timo Lainema
• ViBu's website

Bastu is a business enabler for entrepreneurs and businesses in the Turku region. Our goal is to enhance your business with new, collaborative opportunities that utilise the philosophical tenets of the sixth wave along with the core competences of our participating companies. We are always looking for new and energetic business professionals to join us. The programme is not leaning towards research or education: it's all about testing and doing. The cost is the time you choose to use and the opportunity costs are the brilliant ideas you miss if you don't participate

Visit Bastu's website to learn more. 

Vocational education and training (VET) in Finland is undergoing a change towards personalised studies and degrees. This means also identifying and acknowledging of previously acquired skills. The importance of skills is growing in work life and both students and staff in vocational education institutions need tools in organizing studies to support the development of valid personal skill sets.

OSATA project produces understanding of the development of skill-related identities needed in the changing work life. The results will be used to build future-oriented tools and pedagogical models to support the students in becoming future professionals.

Visit OSATA website to learn more. 

Social Science for the C21st is designed and led by Academy of Finland Distinguished Professor Lisa Adkins. The research programme runs from 2015-19 and considers shifts in the economy-society relation in post-Fordist capitalism. It is concerned in particular with the complex process of economization, that is, with the process of the folding of the economy into society. 

Visit project's website to learn more. 

FIREA is study established in University of Turku in 2013 aiming to examine health behavioral and clinical risk marker changes during retirement transition by following older workers from work to full-time retirement. The special focus of the study is on activity behavior. Modern measurement tools will be used to quantify changes physical activity, sedentary time and sleep. In addition, the aim is to examine long-term consequences of work and retirement on health and functioning in old age. 

Visit FIREA's website to learn more. 

During recent decades, computational biology, bioinformatics, medical, and health informatics have claimed and successfully established their status as scientific disciplines. They are considered highly relevant for the wellbeing of modern information society. Traditionally, however, these disciplines have focused on different research topics and they have not maintained a dialogue resulting in satisfactory interaction from the point of view of health and wellbeing, the ultimate goals of both individuals and society at large. This TUCS Research Programme aims at establishing such a dialogue by setting up joint activities for the scientific disciplines as well as supporting interaction between academia and the rest of the society.

Visit BioHealth's website to learn more. 

The research at TUCS is carried out through a number of research units. The units have a specific research focus and their status as a TUCS Research Unit is confirmed by the TUCS board for a period of three years.

Visit TUCS website to learn more. 

VALTE project is focusing on producing study module for students to gain more and better working life skills. 

Visit VALTE's website to learn more. The site content is in Finnish. 

The Faculty of Law at the University of Turku is a modern research and education community. Generating new knowledge through research is one of the Faculty's top priorities.

Visit faculty's website to learn more about research projects. 

Muuttuva Salo - Changing Salo, a case study on the effects of sudden structural changes. 

Visit Salo city's website to learn more. 

The consortium project Tackling Inequalities in Time of Austerity (TITA) provides a novel and comprehensive analysis of long-term trends in financial inequalities, inequalities in health and well-being and inequalities of opportunities over the life course, and their links to the moral and political climate in society. Thus, it analyses together multiple forms of inequality (such as income, wealth, consumption, education, family dynamics, health, mortality, trust and deprivation) and their interrelationships.

Visit consortium's website to learn more. 

The high-level research at the Faculty of Education is internationally well-known and has its scope on the whole life-span. 

Research at the Faculty is concentrated around the two nationally and internationally distinguished research centres. Cooperation and organisation of the two research centres as internationally distinguished centres will be strengthened especially in the areas of joint and significant research themes.

Visit faculty's website to learn more. 

Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and Education CELE's main research themes are 

• Sociology of Education
• Politics of Education
• Comparative International Education
• University and Higher Education
• Lifelong Learning and Adult Education
• History of Education

Visit CELE's website to learn more.  

Project's goal is bridging the gap of research on workplace information literacy, that is looking at workplace learning in a wider context, including information seeking skills, information evaluation, information use, information sharing with others, and knowledge creation in a social context.

Visit project's ResearchGate to learn more.