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Eija Meriläinen

Position: - School/office: School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences

Email: eija.merilainen@oru.se

Phone: +46 19 303826

Room: F2224

Research subject

Human Geography

About Eija Meriläinen

Eija is a post-doctoral researcher at the Human Geography group. Her research centers on disasters and crises, from headline-making events to the impacts of everyday inequalities. She is particularly interested in how contemporary urbanization patterns weave in with the capitalist political-economic system to produce economic and spatial inequalities – and ultimately, also disasters.

Eija’s most recent research project, “Making home in the mono-industrial urban region” studies how investment and divestment decisions of the local core industry impact the housing situations of the region’s inhabitants. The first case study is in Northern Finland, but the project is likely to be expanded to Bergslagen in Sweden. In addition to this project, Eija continues working on other topics, such as the role of nature in disaster governance.

Regionally, Eija’s current focus is on Nordic countries, but her doctoral dissertation focused on an urban-forestal fire in Valparaíso, Chile. Framings and critiques stemming from Latin American scholarly debates, such as those on informality and rights of nature, continue to interest her.

Prior to joining Örebro University, Eija worked at the University College London in the United Kingdom, at the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction. Her doctoral thesis on urban disaster governance from Hanken School of Economics in Finland.

Eija is involved in teaching at the Economic Geography I and Geography of Sweden courses. She also coordinates the Human Geography groups’ academic seminars.

Publications

Publications

Articles in journals

Matthews, L. J. , Clark-Ginsberg, A. , Scobie, M. , Peters, L. E. R. , Gopinathan, U. , Mosurska, A. , Davis, K. , Myhre, S. & et al. (2023). Collective action by community groups: solutions for climate change or different players in the same game?. Climate and Development, 15 (8), 679-691.
Sirviö, H. , Meriläinen, E. , Lehtinen, A. , Kellokumpu, V. & Luukkonen, J. (2023). Metsät metsinä, kiistakapulana ja talouden materiaalisena perustana. Alue ja Ympäristö, 51 (2), 1-3.
Shannon, G. , Basu, P. , Peters, L. E. , Clark-Ginsberg, A. , Herrera Delgado, T. M. , Gope, R. , Guanilo, M. , Kelman, I. & et al. (2023). Think global, act local: using a translocal approach to understand community-based organisations' responses to planetary health crises during COVID-19. The Lancet Planetary Health, 7 (10), e850-e858.
Meriläinen, E. , Joseph, J. , Jauhola, M. , Yadav, P. , Romo-Murphy, E. , Marin, J. & Gadhavi, S. (2022). Examining relational social ontologies of disaster resilience: lived experiences from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Chile and Andean territories. Disaster Prevention and Management, 31 (3), 273-287.
Meriläinen, E. , Kelman, I. , Peters, L. E. R. & Shannon, G. (2022). Puppeteering as a metaphor for unpacking power in participatory action research on climate change and health. Climate and Development, 14 (5), 419-430.
Meriläinen, E. & Lehtinen, A. A. (2022). Re-articulating forest politics through “rights to forest” and “rights of forest”. Geoforum, 133, 89-100.
Meriläinen, E. & Koro, M. (2021). Data, Disasters, and Space-Time Entanglements. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 12 (2), 157-168.
Fougère, M. & Meriläinen, E. (2021). Exposing three dark sides of social innovation through critical perspectives on resilience. Industry and Innovation, 28 (1), 1-18.
Peters, L. E. R. , Shannon, G. , Kelman, I. & Meriläinen, E. (2021). Toward resourcefulness: pathways for community positive health. Global Health Promotion, 29 (3), 5-13.
Meriläinen, E. , Mäkinen, J. & Solitander, N. (2020). Blurred Responsibilities of Disaster Governance: The American Red Cross in the US and Haiti. Politics and Governance, 8 (4), 331-342.
Meriläinen, E. (2020). Katastrofien hallinnointia kaupungistuneilla ja epätasa-arvoisilla alueilla: resilienssi ja oikeudet. Alue ja Ympäristö, 49 (2), 179-183.
Meriläinen, E. , Nikkanen, M. , Räsänen, A. & Silvast, A. (2020). Katastrofitutkimuksen käsitteistöä suomeksi ja Suomessa: kimmoisasti vaaroja kohti?. Alue ja Ympäristö, 49 (2), 92-109.
Meriläinen, E. , Fougère, M. & Piotrowicz, W. (2020). Refocusing urban disaster governance on marginalised urban people through right to the city. Environmental Hazards: Human and Policy Dimensions, 19 (2), 187-208.
Meriläinen, E. (2020). The dual discourse of urban resilience: robust city and self-organised neighbourhoods. Disasters. The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management, 44 (1), 125-151.

Articles, book reviews

Meriläinen, E. (2021). Review of: Roars from the Mountain: Colonial Management of the 1951 Volcanic Disaster at Mount Lamington. Journal of Pacific History, 56 (3), 372-373.

Articles, reviews/surveys

Myhre, S. L. , Scobie, M. , Meriläinen, E. , Kelman, I. & Gopinathan, U. (2024). Climate Change, Community Action, and Health in the Anglophone Caribbean: A Scoping Review. Public Health Reviews, 44.

Chapters in books

Kelman, I. & Meriläinen, E. (2024). Climate change, disasters and humanitarian action. In: Silke Roth; Bandana Purkayastha; Tobias Denskus, Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality (pp. 338-351). . Edward Elgar Publishing.
Peters, L. , Kelman, I. , Van Den Hoek, J. , Meriläinen, E. & Shannon, G. (2024). Intersecting Participatory Action Research and Remote Sensing for Climate Change, Health, and Justice. In: Rajini Srikanth; Linda Thompson, Climate Justice and Public Health: Realities, Responses, and Reimaginings for a Better Future. . University of Massachusetts Press.
Meriläinen, E. (2023). Conceptualizations of resilient community for social futures. In: David S-K Ting; Jacqueline Ann Stagner, Nourishing Tomorrow: Clean Engineering and Nature-friendly Living (pp. 281-316). . World Scientific Publishing.
Solitander, N. & Meriläinen, E. (2022). The logistification of humanitarian relief. In: Maria Sandberg; Janne Tienari, Transformative Action for Sustainable Outcomes: Responsible Organising (pp. 79-85). . Routledge.
Meriläinen, E. & Fougère, M. (2022). The nature-human dichotomy within disaster governance. In: Maria Sandberg; Janne Tienari, Transformative Action for Sustainable Outcomes: Responsible Organising. . Routledge.
Meriläinen, E. (2018). From Aid to Resilience: How to Bridge Disaster Resilience and Humanitarian Supply Chain Management Research. In: Gyöngyi Kovács; Karen Spens; Mohammad Moshtari, The Palgrave Handbook of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management (pp. 713-741). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sohn, M. , Meriläinen, E. & Grant, D. (2016). Decision making in humanitarian logistics. In: Ira Haavisto; Gyöngyi Kovács; Karen Spens, Supply chain management for humanitarians: tools for practice (pp. 103-123). Philadelphia: Kogan page.
Kachali, H. , Meriläinen, E. & Storsjö, I. (2016). Innovative solutions for disaster preparedness: public procurement for innovation (PPI) as an instrument for collaboration between public and private sectors. In: Future Proofing Procurement: Thematic Supplement to the 2015 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement (pp. 44-47). . UNOPS - United Nations Office for Project Services.

Conference papers

Kachali, H. , Meriläinen, E. & Storsjö, I. (2016). Cascading innovation in health care and energy supply chains through public procurement. In: Lauri Ojala; Juuso Töyli; Tomi Solakivi; Harri Lorentz; Sini Laari; Ninni Lehtinen, NOFOMA 2016 – Proceedings of the 28th Annual Nordic Logistics Research Network Conference 8-10 June 2016, Turku, Finland. Paper presented at 28th Annual Nordic Logistics Research Network Conference (NOFOMA 2016), Turku, Finland, June 8-10, 2016. (pp. 236-253). Nordic Logistics Research Network.
Meriläinen, E. (2016). Disaster reconstruction housing supply network in the aftermath of Valparaíso fire 2014. In: 7th EDSI Conference Conference Proceedings. Paper presented at 7th Annual Conference of the European Decision Sciences Institute (EDSI 2016): The water footprint in decision sciences, Helsinki, Finland, May 24-27, 2016. (pp. 303-317). European Decision Sciences Institute.
Kovács, G. , Meriläinen, E. , Spens, K. , Storsjö, I. , Tatham, P. & Vaillancourt, A. (2015). Practices in the wine supply chain. In: Ø. Halskau; A. Buvik, NOFOMA 2015 Post Conference Proceedings. Paper presented at 27th Annual NOFOMA Conference (NOFOMA 2015), Molde, Norway, June 3-5, 2015. Molde: Molde University College.
Wilson, M. & Meriläinen, E. (2014). Actor coordination in disaster rebuild phase: an explorative case study of the 2010/2011 Christchurch Earthquakes. In: Tava Olsen; Abraham Zhan, 12th ANZAM Operations, Supply Chain, and Services Management Symposium Proceedings. Paper presented at 12th ANZAM Operations, Supply Chain, and Services Management Symposium, Auckland, New Zealand, July 2-4, 2014. (pp. 220-239). Auckland: University of Auckland Business School.

Doctoral theses, monographs

Meriläinen, E. (2021). Urban Disaster Governance: Resilience and Rights in the Unequal City. (Doctoral dissertation). Helsinki: Hanken School of Economics.

Other

Meriläinen, E. & Jauhola, M. (2021). Luonnonkatastrofeista puhuminen vie huomion kriisien juurisyiltä. Helsinki: Sanoma oy.

Reports

Comes, T. , Alexander, D. , Boin, A. , Eckert, C. , Elmqvist, T. , Fochesato, M. , Helbing, D. , Latusek-Jurczak, D. & et al. (2022). Strategic crisis management in the European Union. Berlin: SAPEA (Evidence Review Report 11).