Laura Mankki

Laura Mankki is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research focuses on the intersection of intersectionality, labor, and capitalism. She is currently working on the Kone Foundation-funded project Formations of hybrid manhood in the experience economy (EXMEN 2022-2025), where she studies male influencers and the relationship between dogs and men. She will begin a new project funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation in summer 2025: Precarious intimate networks of migration and work – Intimate and intersectional infrastructures of low-wage migrants (PRECAINFRA).

Mankki's research interests span migration studies, gender studies, welfare state analysis, Lean management, and biocapitalism. Her work often examines how intimate relationships, housing, and social networks shape migrant experiences, particularly among low-wage workers. She investigates how infrastructures become active participants in producing closeness among migrants, challenging traditional views of infrastructure as passive and invisible. Her PhD research (2024) examined the struggles of migrants working in low-wage sectors as part of the (re)production of the Finnish welfare state.

Mankki's scholarly output demonstrates significant trends in analyzing the gendered dimensions of Lean management in welfare services, the intersectional struggles of migrants within the welfare state, and the formation of hybrid masculinities in contemporary experience economies. Her research consistently applies intersectional frameworks to understand how class, race, and gender interact in welfare service work and migration contexts. She contributes to theoretical developments in understanding intimate infrastructures and biocapitalism.

Mankki is an active member of several research groups including Beyond Borders, Norms and Boxes (BBNB), Human-Animal Studies Network, and Lean Work Gender (LeWoGe) at the University of Eastern Finland. She has collaborated extensively with Professor Eeva Jokinen and other researchers on projects examining Lean management in public services.

Her academic trajectory includes previous positions as a PhD student at the University of Jyväskylä (2013-2017) in a project funded by the Academy of Finland, followed by roles as a university teacher (2017-2019) and junior researcher in the LEWOGE project (2018-2022), which studied the effects of Lean management in public healthcare organizations.