New publication about policy-knowledge relations in contemporary policy reforms

My article entitled ‘The role of scientific knowledge in dealing with complex policy problems under conditions of uncertainty’ has been published in Policy & Politics.

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Return of a strong gender equality policy in Finland?

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The new Finnish government announced its government programme on Monday 3.6.2019. Gender equality has made its way back to the government’s agenda, but the battle over resources continues. Anna Elomäki, Johannan Kantola, Anu Koivunen and I analyzed the government programme from gender equality perspective. You can read our analysis (in Finnish) in Politiikasta.fi.

Shifts in the role of knowledge in contemporary policy-making

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What kind of shifts have there been in the role of (scientific) knowledge in contemporary policy-making? I wrote a short piece to Ilmiö – Sosiologinen media about policy impact assessments, strategic governance and experimental policy in order to reflect the changing relations between knowledge, politics and policy-making. The article is in Finnish and can be found here. It can also be listened to as a podcast.

 

Podcast about gender and the economy

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Anna Elomäki and I visited a couple of weeks ago Poliittinen talous podcast, a podcast on politics, economy and political economy. We discussed feminist perspectives to political economy with the host Timo Harjuniemi. You can listen the podcast (in Finnish) here.

Forthcoming publication: Gender equality in the government budget

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One of my projects, Tasa-arvoa talousarvioon [Gender equality in the government budget] is coming to an end. On 4 September 2018 we celebrate the publication of the final report. The report is in Finnish, but the English abstract can be read below. The report is edited by Anna Elomäki and me. The chapters are authored by Anna Elomäki, Anita Haataja, Mauri Kotamäki, Olli Kärkkäinen, Maria Vaalavuo and Hanna Ylöstalo. The report is available here.

The Government Budget and other processes and decisions related to public financial management, have gendered impacts. The Budget can either promote gender equality or increase gender disparities. The research project: Gender Equality in the Government Budget: 1) identified best practices in gender impact assessment of the budget and in gender budgeting in other countries, 2) developed methods to assess the gender impacts of the budget and assessed the gender impacts of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government’s policies, and 3) made recommendations concerning the integration of gender impact assessments and other gender budgeting tools and practices in budgetary process in Finnish government administration.

The project developed methods to assess the gendered impacts of changes in taxation and social benefits and changes in public services, as well as methods to assess employment impacts of policies from a gender perspective. The methods are based on gender equality research, economic research and microsimulation. In addition to gender, the methods and the conducted assessments consider other demographic differences, such as age, income and family type.

The project makes five broad recommendations for the Finnish model for gender budgeting and gender impact assessments of the budget. These are: 1) introduce the concept of gender budgeting in Finnish state administration, 2) connect gender budgeting to national and sectoral gender equality objectives, 3) extend gender impact assessments from Government bill proposals to the broad budgetary process, 4) report systematically on the gender equality impacts of the budget, and 5) support gender budgeting politically and in government administration.