2020

Action plan 2020 Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies University of Helsinki

17.10.2019 1.MISSION AND FOCUS AREAS

Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Human resources Studies In 2020 the Helsinki Institute of Urban and The mission of the Helsinki Regional Studies Urbaria will employ Institute of Urban and Regional Studies Urbaria is Director Mari Vaattovaara (part-time),

Deputy Director Juri Mykkänen, Coordinator 1) To conduct internationally Iiris Koivulehto and a part-time student high-quality urban research and establish trainee. interdisciplinary research programmes together with research partners, During the 2020 term the

organisation of tasks will focus on sharing 2) To develop methodological and responsibilities more extensively theoretical competence in urban research in among the multidisciplinary researcher collaboration with network and coordinating professors. national and international partners,

3) To promote urban research and education based on it at the University of Helsinki in collaboration with degree programmes in the field, Focus areas 2020

1.Clarification of research 4) To collaborate with Aalto themes and structures University as well as the City of Helsinki and other cities 2. Postdoc Forum in developing urban research and in particular to 3. Urban Finland promote Urban Academy cooperation,

In addition, the strong 5) To communicate on the cooperation with the Urban national and international level with universities, Academy established during the research institutes, public administration operators, previous term and our public businesses and civil society operators conducting engagement will be continued. research in the field, and

6) To develop and coordinate the social impact of research in the field.

2.ORGANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH

2.1. Research themes: People, places & politics

Urbaria’s network consists of over 100 researchers in various fields of urban studies. During the 2020 term Urbaria will increasingly aim to identify comprehensively new research fields and groups to complement the field of urban studies. In addition to internal email and Flamma distribution, this will be implemented by visits from the director and the coordinator to faculties and departments. Urbaria has decided to organise the University’s urban studies under the themes of people, places and politics. The multidisciplinary organisation responsibility for research on these themes for the term 2019 was assigned to Professor Pekka Martikainen (people), Associate Professor Tuuli Toivonen (places) and Professor Janne Hukkinen (politics). During the 2020 term, the organisation of these research themes will be made concrete. The coordinating professors committed to this task will assume the establishment of a research strategy for the themes as well as other possible activities alongside researchers in the themes.

The aim is to launch the 2020 term with a joint strategy event of the institute. The hope is that the strategy event will be attended by the leadership in its entirety (steering group, director and vice-director as well as possible theme directors).

2.2. HELSUS ja INEQ

In addition to the above research themes, Urbaria will organise research collaboration with HELSUS, the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, and INEQ, the Helsinki Inequality Initiative research network. Sustainability research conducted in HELSUS under the urban theme will be transferred to be clearly part of Urbaria and its researcher network in conjunction with a strategy event organised towards the end of 2019. As a result of this cooperation, a theme of sustainable urban studies will be established under the coordination of Professor Christopher Raymond from HELSUS.

The stages corresponding to the organisation process of sustainable urban studies will also be implemented with regard to the theme of inequality in cooperation with the INEQ network in order to recognise shared research themes and objectives and gather together urban studies research cooperation within the University of Helsinki. Researchers in various networks will be encouraged in cooperation to engage in co-author publication and partake in collaboration projects. The coordination duties in the theme are tentatively assigned to Professor Veikko Eranti. 2.ORGANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH

2.3. Postdoc Forum

Six researchers have been recruited to urban studies postdoctoral research positions funded by the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa in 2018–2023. Research themes have been highlighted from the cities’ strategic plans: urban inequality, the population dynamics of urban areas, urban economy, the objective of becoming a carbon neutral city, and the changes digitalisation bring to urban life. Four of the researchers have been recruited to the University of Helsinki (the recruitment process for a fifth researcher is under way) and two to Aalto University. During the 2020 term three of the researchers have been allocated to the Faculty of Science and two to the Faculty of Social Sciences. However, all researchers work closely as part of the Postdoc Forum group and in Urbaria facilities.

Internal communications

High-quality internal communications are at the core of the organisation and development of research. During the 2020 term, Urbaria will meet and orient research staff from various faculties and campuses as well as teams from HR and communications on what Urbaria is and its operations.

In addition, the network structure requires tools and symbols for researchers to enable identifying and attaching to Urbaria. Urbaria will produce various communication and marketing materials, such as infographics, computer stickers and business cards to build Urbaria’s brand within the UH. 3. INTERNATIONALITY

During the 2020 term Urbaria will continue its international peer development activities by visiting Amsterdam ( University of Amsterdam, Bakhuis and AMS institutes), Stockholm (Resilience Centre, Openlab) and London (University College of London and London School of Economics and Political Science). The cooperation with Harvard University, MIT and universities in Hong Kong initiated during earlier terms will be continued when possible.

An International Visitors Program will be established in the institute to allow inviting international professors distinguished in urban studies to develop research at the UH. The International Visitors Program comprises two annual one- to twoweek visits. During the visit the researchers will work as advisors to Urbaria leadership and coordination, participate in the development of activities of the researcher network with regard to the theme, meet representatives of Urbaria’s stakeholders and present a lecture at an open event at the University.

In the 2020 term International Visitors Program INTERNATIONAL will host two visits. The first visitor will be Sako VISITORS Musterd, professor of urban geography from the University of Amsterdam. The focus of the PROGRAM visit is to develop segregation research, which is a strong suit of Urbaria. For the second visitor, Urbaria is looking for an expert in multidisciplinary urban research. 4. RESEARCH COOPERATION

4.1. Aalto University and other partners

During the 2020 term Urbaria will study research cooperation opportunities with Aalto University. Cooperation will be coordinated in particular with the Living+ Platform. A joint project is planned to concretise the cooperation between Urbaria and the Living+ Platform. At the same time the interaction established in the previous term with Aalto researchers will be continued. Urbaria and Living+ will support researcher encounters across university boundaries and inform researchers about, for example, events organised by the partner university.

Urbaria will continue its close cooperation with the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. Research cooperation will be conducted particularly with the Urban Research and Statistics unit of the City of Helsinki. Multidisciplinary urban research crossing organisational boundaries will be encouraged, for example, at joint seminar of the City of Helsinki and the University entitled Urban Lunch Hour, which will chart cooperation opportunities and discuss the social usability of research information and the need for further research. In addition, research cooperation will be discussed with other cooperation partners, such as the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.

The aim of Urbaria’s research cooperation during the 2020 term is to establish a network enabling systematic dialogue to identify various multidisciplinary urban-themed issues and potential research topics.

4.2. Urbaria Fellow Membership

During the 2020 term Urbaria will open a fellow URBARIA membership option to researchers from both FELLOW national and international universities. Researchers from outside the UH may apply for MEMBERSHIP a fellowship with an electronic form available on the website. Fellowship provides researchers with access to selected Urbaria events. This will allow the Urbaria network togrow and multidisciplinary research communications to become more efficient. 4.3. Urban Finland

The aim of the Urban Finland proposal made in November 2018 is to establish an internationally high- "Our society needs the kind of quality multidisciplinary research, teaching and problem-based innovation ecosystem focused on cities jointly led and coordinated by the University of Helsinki and Aalto multidisciplinary and University. The proposal makers and key parties at the sustainable research initial stages are the University of Helsinki and Aalto cooperation which through its University, but the aim is to establish close research and teaching cooperation also with other universities. outcomes helps in solving The working title of this entity is Urban Finland. topical urban, social and

I Negotiations to promote Urban Finland have housing policy challenges.” continued in autumn 2019. A joint meeting with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education and Culture and Aalto University was held on 3 October 2019. Anita Lehikoinen, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Education and Culture, will establish a working group to promote the proposal. During the 2020 term Urbaria will continue to promote the progress of the Urban Finland initiative. 5. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

5.1. Urban Academy: Research cooperation and We Make the City

Urbaria will participate actively in the strategic cooperation of the Urban Academy, consisting of the University of Helsinki, Aalto University and the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. The Urbaria Postdoc Forum established as a result of urban research cooperation will choose its research themes in close cooperation with the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa. Research activities will also be communicated to the cities based on the practices established through the cooperation (see section 3.3. ).

Urbaria will continue the planning and implementation of the Amsterdam-based urban event We Make the City together with the other partner organisations in the Urban Academy. During the 2020 term the focus will be on the development and implementation of the TABLE dialogue concept. TABLE dialogue events will be organised as part of Urban Academy cooperation. The aim is to come up with established operating methods between universities and cities as well as other potential parties to engage in dialogue, identify issues and plan solutions.

In addition, the Urbaria director will participate actively in public discourse through various media and implement direct impact communications in cooperation with various expert and decision-making organisations. Urbaria will actively use opportunities afforded by various media channels to participate in public discourse. Implementation methods include contacting researchers for various media events or newspaper articles as interviewees as well as the participation of Urbaria leadership or the establishment of cooperation with media representatives (e.g., the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE). Urbaria aims to actively encourage its researchers to engage publicly and also offers support for working with the media.

External communications

In addition to events, Urbaria’s public engagement and influencing are based on high-quality and systematic external communications. Urbaria’s external communications aim at

Supporting UH’s science communications related to urban studies: news articles, active social media channels, media contacts Establishing and strengthening Urbaria’s own brand: visual look, visibility, participation Promoting urban research and Urbaria’s researchers' status in public discourse 6. URBARIA'S OPERATIONS

During the 2020 term Urbaria will implement the above tasks through the following activities:

Community Events Urban Lunch Hour Every six months, Urbaria will organise The Urban Lunch Hour is a monthly lunch seminar a Community Event for the entire researcher collaboratively organised by Urbaria and the network. These events aim at bringing the Urban Research and Statistics unit of the City of researchers together to get to know each other, Helsinki for researchers of the University of exchange experiences and learn new things. The Helsinki and the City of Helsinki. The aim of the Community Event organised in the autumn seminar is to enable encounters between will serve simultaneously as a Christmas party. researchers working in different organisations and On the other hand, the event organised in the to identify cooperation opportunities. Additionally, spring will feature a changing theme and a guest topics of the seminar include the social speaker requested by the researchers. Desired significance of research-based information, the themes have included the wellbeing of need for further research and the provision of researchers, problems inherent in increasingly multidisciplinary multidisciplinary research and social influencing. perspectives.

Direct Dialogue Urbaria Forum Urbaria’s Direct Dialogue provides UH Urbaria Forum is a discussion event researchers with an opportunity to aimed at the general public in which communicate on research-based Urban Studies at the UH actively information and policy participates in various topics of current recommendations directly to decision- public discourse. The aim of the Forum makers. The event is always organised is to increase the role of researchers in in agreement with a cooperation identifying significant themes and partner, such as the City of Helsinki. defining important topical issues. 6. URBARIA'S OPERATIONS

External cooperation Internal cooperation

Urbaria will participate in the implementation Within the limits of resources, Urbaria’s of events and project together with the members will be offered support for event University’s external partners in a manner organisation, science communications and, for enabled by resources. Urbaria may cooperate example, media contacts. UH’s other institutes, in offering, for example, researcher opinions departments, units or faculties may also ask and support for communications. During the Urbaria to be their cooperation partner. 2020 term Urbaria will participate in the planning and organisation of the Helsinki Social Housing Festival for 2021.

Urbaria Summaries & Think Corner Urbaria Blog Urbania will continue the science During the 2020 term Urbaria popularisation concepts launched in 2019. An will communicate with Think Corner on online publication will be launched for Urbaria urban-themed productions and, when Summaries and policy briefs. The publications needed, participate in the choice of will be distributed in cooperation with the Urban Academy. Urbaria will also continue themes and speakers as well as marketing to maintain the What the Urban? blog founded and communications. together with the urban studies collective KATUKO. All Urbaria researchers are welcome to contribute to the blog. When resources allow, training in blog writing will also be organised for researchers.