معرفی
Eeva Puumala serves as a Senior Research Fellow at Tampere University's Faculty of Social Sciences within the Tampere Peace Research Institute. She leads the ERC-funded EmergentCommunity project (2021-2025), generating empirically grounded knowledge on coexistence and conflict in complex urban environments, and previously directed the Kone Foundation-supported Neighbourhood Yurt project (2018-2021) examining social relations in urban neighborhoods.
Her research investigates community dynamics in diversifying cities through daily interactions and spatial practices, bridging peace studies, political sociology, and urban theory. Key themes include conviviality in segregated spaces, vulnerability in migration systems, and the interplay between personal experiences and political structures. Her methodology emphasizes ethnographic engagement with urban communities to understand grassroots peacebuilding and social cohesion.
Analysis of her 2023-2025 publications reveals consistent focus on urban peace processes, with recurring exploration of spatial justice, participatory vulnerability frameworks, and the political dimensions of everyday life. Her work increasingly integrates architectural design perspectives with social theory to address segregation, while maintaining strong connections to Finnish and European urban contexts through the Kosmopolis journal editorials.
Scientific recognition includes:
- ERC Starting Grant (2021-2025) for EmergentCommunity
Her research is sustained through competitive external funding, including the prestigious ERC grant and Kone Foundation support, enabling longitudinal studies of urban coexistence. Collaborative networks with scholars like L. Vastapuu and A. Kynsilehto facilitate interdisciplinary approaches across sociology, peace research, and urban studies.
As a core member of the Tampere Peace Research Institute, she contributes to Finland's leading hub for conflict resolution studies, connecting local urban research with global peace scholarship through editorial work in Kosmopolis and public engagement via Politiikasta.fi.
