Sakari Taipale appointed as Professor of Social and Public Policy
Since 2019, Taipale has worked at the Ģֱ as an Associate Professor of Social and Public Policy. He has also acted in his side-role as a part-time Senior Research Associate at the University of Ljubljana since 2018. From 2013 to 2018, Taipale worked as an Academy Researcher at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy. He is also a docent of Social and Public Policy at the University of Eastern Finland.
In his research, Taipale has focused on new societal problems, inequity and well-being brought about by digitalisation. At the initial stages of his career, he concentrated especially on the spread of mobile information and communication technologies as well as on their differently paced adoption. Later, he has also studied intergenerational family communication, social media, and robotisation.
At present, Taipale is leading a research team on new technologies, ageing and care at the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare). His team uses a wide range of research methods to investigate the digitalisation trends of older people’s daily life and care.
Taipale’s research team is also involved in the DigiIN project funded by the Strategic Research Council, where they investigate older people’s use of electronic services especially from the involvement point of view. In addition, the research team participates in the Aging in Data partnership project, which is led by the Canadian Concordia University and comprises 18 universities. The project explores how old age is represented in the ever-increasing amounts of data that influences economic and political decision-making across societies.
As one of its three chairpersons, Taipale participates actively in the activities of the JYU.Well interdisciplinary community of wellbeing researchers. He is also a popular interviewee in the media who is concerned about the tendency to regard older people as a single homogenous “grey” group. “Technology can make work and care with older people easier,” says Taipale, “but the benefits it brings do not always match with the most essential purpose of this work – personal contact and genuine interaction.”
Further information:
Sakari Taipale, sakari.taipale@jyu.fi, +358 40 072 8852