Heli Mutanen is a University Lecturer at the School of Educational Sciences and Psychology within the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Eastern Finland. Her research focuses on youth education, employability dynamics, labor market pathways, and identity/agency studies. She co-leads the HighEmploy research project (2018–2022) investigating graduate employability and social positioning. Her work critically examines how social class intersects with educational and career trajectories, particularly through studies of Finnish business graduates. She employs narrative analysis to explore how individuals construct employable identities and negotiate agency in marginalized contexts. Mutanen's research outputs include peer-reviewed articles in Sosiologia and British Journal of Sociology of Education , as well as chapters in edited volumes like Rethinking Graduate Employability in Context . She collaborates with researchers such as Maija Korhonen and Nina Haltia on projects analyzing capital inheritance, career narratives, and activist interventions.











