Research

I work as a researcher and teacher at the University of Tampere in the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology. My scholarly interest is the organization of work and relations in working life, likewise the social organization of interaction in high reliability organizations. In teaching my special field is the application of social sciences theory to working life. In the expertise of the researcher I emphasize not only expertise vis à vis content, but also the tasks of a person organization a research project, expertise in organization, development and working environment.

I am currently involved in two ongoing research projects; the first is concerned with temporary agency work in the Finnish health care system, particularly with how nurses and medical doctors perceive their role and position as temporary agency workers. In addition to a microlevel analysis of the social aspects of temporary agency work, the study includes a macrolevel analysis of the ongoing transition of the Finnish health care system. The second project; the study on aviation training is concerned with the nature and the dynamics of the social interaction between the trainee and the trainer in a multimodal learning environment. The study shows how intersubjectivity, the shared understanding of ongoing action, is accomplished by multiple modes of communicative resources, i.e., verbal and non-verbal practices in interaction and technology use in the simulation training games and authentic work environment in a high reliability organization.

My doctoral dissertation in the field of sociology was completed in 2003 at the University of Tampere. Adopting a cultural studies perspective, the work sets out to explore the way in which air traffic controllers make sense of their own position and their own actions in a given historical situation, which is characterized by a pronounced policy of individualism and competition.